I have to credit Ant Rogenous for bringing this story to my attention after he burst into the GrodsThink record last night straight off the tram, mX clutched in sweaty palms, eyes wide open, exclaiming that he’d found the most awesome-est letter ever to be published in Australia’s least newsey newspaper. After the GrodsThink record we all slapped our foreheads and cursed our stupidity for not discussing the letter so I’ll take this opportunity to steal Ant’s thunder and publish it. Why is it an awesome letter? Well, besides from the most appallingly discriminatory views on disenfranchising Australians, the author says it. He actually says it.
DIVERSITY HAS ONE MAIN LANGUAGE
After visiting the Victorian Electoral Commission website I was appalled at all the non-English support there.
Australia is an English-speaking country — the end.
If people are going to become citizens and then vote, at the very, very least they should be able to speak our language sufficiently to understand the issues.
If we have to convert everything to Somali or whatever, we are allowing people to vote who have not even made the most basic commitment to this country.
There are 20 languages on the site, and I know that each only provides a superficial overview, but I wonder why?
I don’t want anyone, regardless of citizenship status, voting if they can’t speak English well enough to understand the issues.
I’m appalled that people who are not sufficiently committed to Australia to learn English are forced to vote.
I love Australia’s multiculturalism.
SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE not of Anglo-Saxon stock, and we are about where the US was 200 years ago — a great developing country finding its way with people from all over the world forming its core.
But at that core is a fundamental issue — the language. The US has given up the fight and 48 of the 50 states now produce almost everything in both English and Spanish.
Learning English should be free and mandatory.
People come here expecting that they’ll be able to continue their lives exactly as they were. It’s not that simple and we shouldn’t be making it that easy for them.
– Steve, Melbourne
grodscorp@grods.com
GrodsThink Ep.29 (26/8/08)
