four year wait to be a citizen...what the Sender: cresta57

There are many reasons as to why these changes affect people's lives here. To me the ability to vote is paramount, I live here, I work here in a business I set up myself, I'd like the opportunity to decide where my tax dollars are spent and by whom. Many people who are working here on PR visas cannot get permanent employment due to not being citizens this effectively means living in limbo for another two years, putting plans on hold for four years instead of two is a big deal if you can't buy a home and are watching them slowly ascend to prices out of your reach. A big downside if your in any kind of defence related occupation is that you cannot work is certain fields without citizenship, a bit hard for a missile guidance technician to find work in the private sector, would the answer be for him to just retrain? I suppose it's possible but what do you live on while your retraining as it's four years before you'd qualify for any benefits. If you travel to Asia a lot as part of your job you can go to India and China without the hbuttle of obtaining Visas if you have an aussie pbuttport, you can also avoid long ques at pbuttport control, doesn't sound like a big deal but if you spend 2 weeks out of four overseas on business it's a long time to be standing around needlessly. Australia sets out to attract certain send migrants via the sol list, what it doesn't make clear is that many who arrive here with the necessary skills end up working in occupations well below their qualifications due to the PR-Citizenship rules. Quite simply it's also part and parcel of feeling settled and at home in your chosen country instead of an outcast with no legal rights or standing in the community, that in it's self is priceless to some and not something a prospective migrant could fully understand. It's a sense of feeling that you actually belong.

-- Sean