It seems that people can`t bear it anymore, and an official government investigation has slammed Darden (Peter Dutton) `s Home Office`s stalling tactics in approving an application to become an Australian citizen.
Australia`s National Audit Office has publicly denounced the department`s inability to use resources or process 80% of naturalization applications within 80 days, a waste of time and energy.
The audit found that the backlog of citizen identity applications jumped 771 percent over the past four years to more than 244765 applications pending before June 30, 2018.
In the same period, the number of cases brought to fruition by the citizen fell by 47 percent, to just 101422 cases in 2017-18.
"the Home Office has not effectively processed applications for citizen status in Australia."
"the processing time increases and there is a long delay between submitting an application and making a decision."
"it is obvious that such a long period of inaction is obvious, regardless of the complexity of the applications to be processed by the department."
And the reason is most likely that since April 2017, when the Liberal Party government announced a comprehensive reform of Australia`s naturalization eligibility criteria, all applications for citizen status have been frozen. But the proposed measures include stricter English tests and a longer wait for permanent residents to apply for citizenship, changes that fail to pass the Senate, so, like the protest, do the trick.
The audit also found that the main driver of reduced delays and approvals was the enhanced Integrity screening procedure, which began in June 2017.
The Audit Office recommends that the Ministry of the Interior later release more information on the timing of the processing of naturalization and the reasons for the decision to refuse naturalization, and issue reports on time every month.
However, it rejected the recommendation and stated that:
"given that each citizen application is assessed on the basis of its merits and personal circumstances, we do not consider this information to be meaningful and may mislead our applicants."
Although the Ministry of the Interior has pledged to work with the Ministry of Finance to better fund activities related to citizen status applications, it has acknowledged "improving the way it operates to keep pace with increased applications and changing conditions".
But that said Labour MP Hill (Julian Hill) did not buy the bill and attacked Darden for creating the black hole.
Slow naturalization applications have been one of the four biggest complaints among voters.
"the consequences of this delay are shocking."
Hill told Congress last year, "every week adults come to our office lobby to cry. It`s an exaggeration. They`re in despair. "
"they are those who want to make a formal commitment to this country. We should expect them to do so. We should welcome them. "
