The federal government has flagged a tougher citizenship test for migrants

Members of the public hold flags at an Australia Day Citizenship Ceremony Source: AAP Image Mick Tsikas

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Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says revamping the test is a debate worth having.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says it's worth debating whether the test to become an Australian citizen should be made harder.

The test was introduced by the Howard federal government in 2007, and amended by the Rudd government in 2009.

A person must get at least 15 of the 20 questions on the test right to pass.

Mr Dutton says he wants to see more focus on Australian values and people's ability to integrate into Australian society- including learning English, educating their children, and either having or getting good employment prospects.

He says most people do the right thing- but more needs to be done to weed out those who don't do the right thing:

"We want to welcome people to our country, as we have done for many decades- the vast majority of whom work hard, they educate their children, they do the right thing by our country. But for the minority that don't do that, for the minority who seek to do the wrong thing, I think we need to have a closer look at those people to determine whether or not they would value the prize of Australian citizenship, or indeed, whether or not they deserve the Australian citizenship."