-Government Moves Pander To the Right Fringe-
COMMENT: The Turnbull government continues it's push to attract voters back from fringe political groups by reshaping the Australian citizenship requirements including extending the residency period to four years and adding a more stringent English test. This comes after this weeks announcement of the 'scrapping' of the 457 skilled visa program.Without the 457 visa hospitality businesses and tech firms will both struggle to fill vacancies when the need to in a timely manner as the pool of skilled workers locally is small. The government however has essentially 're-badged the old program with a higher price to applicants.The new citizenship test has a strong cultural element to 'assure' that potential applicants are integrating into Australian society. This will include specific yes/no questions on subjects whether it is acceptable to lay a hand on your wife and if you can participate in female circumcision.It seems the government is directly pandering to a small section of our country to make Australia a lot less welcoming and demonstrate our ability to offend at a national level. They also seem to expect more out of new potential citizens than our education system delivers for our young people. http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/turnbull-government-to-overhaul-citizenship-test-which-can-only-be-failed-three-times/news-story/fc2d316a1e280aad6f278cd0b89fbbd4http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/04/18/short-detail-plan-abolish-457-visa-creates-uncertainty