Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Bill 2007 - Citizenship test fees and assessment background - Hansard (16 July 2007)

Sep 18, 2026

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Hansard inquiry hearing extracts from 16 July 2007 address the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Bill 2007. The department confirms no fee is payable when taking the citizenship test, while application fees vary by eligibility, including a $240 standard testing-required fee and concessionary $40 options, with certain exempt groups. It also explains procurement of test questions, stipulating assessment expertise, education experience, and second-language testing specialization, and notes findings on limited or absent formal evaluations by other governments. Public views are referenced via a Newspoll survey.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Question (1)

Citizenship test fees and fee exemptions

Question (2)

Tender requirements for assessment expertise and TESOL

Question (3)

Research on evaluations of citizenship tests by other governments

Question (4)

Public surveys on the citizenship test and English inclusion

Question (5)

Government support programmes for learning English

QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE SENATE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY HEARING INTO THE AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (CITIZENSHIP TESTING) BILL 2007: 16 July 2007 DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP Question (1 Hansard) Senator Barnett asked: Could the department provide a list of fees in relation to the citizenship test? Answer: There will be no fee payable at the time the citizenship test is taken. The citizenship application fee payable by applicants, under the general eligibility provisions, who have been required to sit the citizenship test will be $240. This fee will be the same regardless of whether the applicant for citizenship sat the test once, or several times, before he/she passed. The fee for an application for citizenship by people applying under other situations who are not required to have sat a test will remain at $120. Certain holders of pensioner concession cards or health care concession cards who have been required to sit the citizenship test will be entitled to pay a concessionary fee of $40. No fee will be payable by British and Maltese former child migrants under the Commonwealth Child Migration Scheme, or by Australian Defence Force personnel, who have been required to sit the citizenship test. Full details of all citizenship fees are provided in the attached draft fee form 1298i. QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE SENATE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY HEARING INTO THE AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (CITIZENSHIP TESTING) BILL 2007: 16 July 2007 DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP Question (2 Hansard) Senator Crossin asked: Did you specify at all in your tender for the development of the test questions that there had tobe a demonstration of either educational expertise, TESOL expertise or such like? Answer: In the department’s request for quotation (RFQ) for the provision of test questions and answers to evaluate client understanding of Australian citizenship and English language ability we requested, among other things, that: • The question bank must measure a test subject’s understanding of Australian life and citizenship, whilst acting as a test of English language skills; and • The tenderer have a proven record of professional expertise in the formulation of assessment processes through to the evaluation of learning. The company selected following this RFQ process was the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER has extensive experience in test development including a strong background in education and specialisation in second language assessment. QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE SENATE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY HEARING INTO THE AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (CITIZENSHIP TESTING) BILL 2007 : 16 July 2007 DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP Question (3 Hansard) Senator Nettle asked: Has the department undertaken any research on evaluations of citizenship tests conducted by the US, UK or Canadian governments? Is there any evidence about whether the tests improve the cohesiveness of the community? Answer: Our enquiries indicate that, to date, the United Kingdom and Canadian governments have not conducted any formal evaluations oftheir citizenship tests. The Citizenship and Immigration Services directorate of the United States Department of Homeland Security is currently revising the US citizenship test to increase both uniformity and meaningfulness. This process includes developing a set of 100 equally weighted questions from which each test consisting of 10 questions will be drawn. Our enquiries indicate that none of the countries have, to date, investigated whether their citizenship tests have improved the cohesiveness of their respective communities. QUESTION TAKEN ON NOTICE SENATE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY HEARING INTO THE AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT (CITIZENSHIP TESTING) BILL 2007: 16 July 2007 DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRAT

FAQs

Is there any fee payable when a person takes the citizenship test?

No fee is payable at the time the citizenship test is taken.

What application fee applies to applicants required to sit the citizenship test?

Applicants who are required to sit the citizenship test pay $240, regardless of whether they sat the test once or multiple times before passing.

How were requirements for developing test questions defined in the procurement process?

The department’s RFQ requested that the question bank measure understanding of Australian life and citizenship while acting as a test of English language skills, and that the tenderer demonstrate a proven record of expertise in assessment processes through evaluation of learning.

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Eden