Tobias Tohill

And so they look at all of those things and decide, is this person actually someone who's being a good citizen?

Okay, we'll let them become a citizen of our country.

And that's why Japan is the way it is.

Clearly you do too.

Yes, fantastic place.

They can't go too far.

Switzerland, where my sister lives, there's three levels.

So they have local, state and federal testing.

And until about 2003, at the local level, they actually had a vote in a community hall where you were there and people would decide whether they want you to be in the country or not by putting their hands up.

Which I think is a bit brutal.

But they have an assessment of not just proficiency in one of their three languages, but also they expect you to be assessed at government level as well as at local level as being a good part of the society and respecting the norms and practices.

I think New Zealand could look at more fundamental things, like the English test is a very thin test at the moment.

And we could perhaps expect people to have a bit more robust English to be able to become a citizen.

Or even just being able to sing the national anthem at the current citizenship test.

Really?

Why?

Yeah, well, my wife became a citizen.

She's originally from Japan.

And I stitched her up and told her that she had to be able to sing the anthem in Māori and English to be able to become a citizen.

So she assiduously learned it for the two, three months going in.