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Citizenship rights and responsibility

by Voula Messimeri, FECCA, April 2006

The legal status of Australian Citizenship is defined in the Citizenship Act 1948 bringing for the first time a distinct status of being Australian. Australian Citizenship laws and policy have gradually become more inclusive with barriers, such as citizens being defined as British subjects, progressively removed. Today, Australian Citizenship policy and law provide an inclusive and welcoming environment, possibly more than any Citizenship law elsewhere in the world. Since 1949, over 3.1 million migrants have acquired Australian citizenship.

The National Multicultural Advisory Council defines 'citizenship' as a bond or glue, consisting of shared membership in a political community, that is, a commitment to the Constitution and the laws, the rights and obligations and the core values and practices of Australian democracy.

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