the mother language

[Joel S. Berson]

Heard on the car radio:

An Australian government commission has discovered that there are
over 100,000 British citizens eligible to vote in Australia under an
existing law.  (They become eligible after residence for, if I
remember, eight years.)  A government official commented that this is
enough to affect election results, and should not be
permitted.  (Shades of the Irish in the United States in the
1840s.)  The proposal is to deny these people the right to vote if
they do not become Australian citizens within five years.

Is five years enough for these Britishers to learn the language?

Joel

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