Australian Government has been written in response to many requests by teachers frustrated by the difficult task of trying to teach students with low levels of literacy and/or English language the essentials of the complex and abstract information they need to function effectively as Australian citizens, particularly at election times. We were reminded of this at the 2007 election when the Electoral Commission reported that the two highest informal vote counts (9.6% and 9.1%) occurred in seats where there were 62.5% and 63% immigrant voters from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Immigrants also need this information as they apply for Australian citizenship and this package is intended to supplement Let’s Participate: a Course in Australian Citizenship, Becoming an Australian Citizen and other materials produced by the Federal Government. It is interesting to note that the information to be found in Australian Government, when added to that found in our earlier reading materials, covers a large proportion of the material in Becoming an Australian citizen, Citizenship your commitment to Australia.
The volume contains three levels of reading materials: approximately ISLPR 1-, 1 and 1+ to 2, NRS 1-2, 2, and 2-3, and levels 3, 4 and 5 respectively on both NLLIA ESL and Indigenous Bandscales with teacher assistance.
With this intrinsically complex subject matter we strongly recommend that teachers start with the text which is slightly below the comfort zone of their students. Only when they have become quite familiar with the vocabulary and concepts at that level and have completed the accompanying exercises, should any attempt be made to read the next level of text.

This reading material is accompanied by a second volume, Australian Government Workbook, which contains teachers' notes and a significant amount of additional background information, photocopiable stimulus pictures and exercises with suggested answers. The exercises are at the same three levels as the reading texts and include vocabulary extension and consolidation, comprehension, sentence structure, pronunciation, syllabification, punctuation and phonics, guided writing and detailed listening.
We would like to point out here that, although we anticipate that teachers will photocopy significant proportions of this workbook, we have not inflated the price of the book to compensate for the resultant lower sales.

Sound Recording of Australian Government contains a slow, clear reading of the three reading texts by Lyndal Reid, who is an extremely experienced Australian ESL teacher. It also includes two recordings each of Advance Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda. The first is a "lined" version of the chorus and first verse of each song, led by George Buwali. George sings each half line, which is then repeated by a group of singers: Renée Buwali, Dorothy Court, Keith Davidson, Margie McLoughlin and Lyndal Reid. The second version in each case contains the whole song sung clearly at a very moderate pace.

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