Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Aaron Martin: NZ Immigration Law Principal Lawyer on the Government's plan to introduce a citizenship test

Transcript

Aaron Martin: NZ Immigration Law Principal Lawyer on the Government's plan to introduce a citizenship test · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Government's introducing a new citizenship test for those looking to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: become key. We's going to be rolled out late twenty
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: twenty seven. It asks questions on topics like voting rights,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: principles of democracy, and you need to get seventy five
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: percent questions right to pass. So not quite as hard
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: as school. Aaron Martin, principal lawyer at New Zealand Immigration
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Law with me this morning. Get a Aaron very right,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: So what do you reckon? What's wrong with asking, you know,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: should you pay taxes? Free speech? Bit about the treaty,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, there's nothing wrong with it. I just think it's
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: interesting that you've got someone who determines what is the
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: correct answer, and very clearly is an indication that there
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: is a correct view. And I'm just astounded that you've
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: got a party that's all about spending taxpayers money. Wisely,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: who's now saying we taxpayers around a bunch of bureaucrates
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to come up with a pop quiz. I think we've
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: got bigger problems in the islands that need to be
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: addressed rather than the pop quiz on the citizenship test.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Most people come to New Zealand to become citizens because
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of these values. So in my view, I think it's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a bit of a beat up in order to try
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and look good in the upcoming election.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: How can you have a problem with the questions when
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you don't know what they are yet?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Well, in these circumstances, what do you need questions about
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: these things for?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: People know what to make to make sure? Well? I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: know they know why they're coming, but how much do
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: they know about us?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Well, given that they've already been here for about five years.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Or more, it should be easy to answer exactly.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: So in those circumstances, why do we even need to
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: have the test? If it's that easy, it's going to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: mean that everyone's surely going to pass.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: In Australia, they ask things like which state is the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: smallest of the mainland states? Tis Many, Victoria, Queensland. I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: mean they're pretty harmless, innocuous.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: To school geography tests. I mean, really, what you've got
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to ask, what's the value of doing this in the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: citizenship application?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Doesn't it tell you? It tells you, It tells you something,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't aaron?
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  Speaker 3: Because if you're you know, at school, we all studied
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: hard because we were invested in passing. We were invested
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: in getting to a higher level of education. So how
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: hard can it be to just answer a few questions
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: and show that you're invested in this country.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I don't have a problem with that. People have already
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: invested in this country, that they've come here, that they've
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: devoted their time, and if certain skills here, that's not
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: an issue for me. The issue is why on Earth
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: aught we spending taxpayers money the bureaucrats to come up
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: with a pop quiz at this point in time when
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: New Zealand's faced with much bigger problems, and on the
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: standard that a party that promotes itself on the wise
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: spend of taxpayers money thinks that this is a great
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: thing to do at this particular juncture of our history.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Quite frankly, it's a waste of money. It should be
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: devoted on more important.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Aaron Martin with us this morning, principal lawyer at New
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Zealand Immigration Law. Appreciate your time.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: to news Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:17
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