THERE was a telling pause in the Government’s Australian values drumbeat today when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull struggled to say what they were.

For close to a minute, punctuated by self-interruptions, Mr Turnbull essentially made clear this will be decided by public discussion.

The Prime Minister had called a press conference to outline plans for a citizenship test which he hoped would reinforce what it means to be an Australian.

Nailing down these elements became awkward when a reporter asked; “Could you give a summary of those things you believe all Australians should sign up to?”

Mr Turnbull replied: “What we will … the answer is yes but the discussion paper that (Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s) department has released is going to engage public discussion on this.

“As indeed Phil Ruddock and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells did a little while ago and that’s been a valuable part of it too. I think we understand, you know ... Australians ...

“Australians have an enormous reservoir of good sense, and we know that our values of mutual respect, democracy, freedom, rule of law, those values, a fair go — these they are fundamental Australian values.

“They’re not shared in every part of the world. That’s true. But they’re shared by us. And we are entitled to say if you want to be a citizen of Australia, there are a few things that we want you to demonstrate that you share.

“Commitment to our values, allegiance to our country, competent English, being here for four years, integration, demonstrating that you have made that commitment, that this is not just an administrative process of achieving some, you know, particular qualification.

“This is not about administration. This is about allegiance and commitment to Australian values.”

The ramble underlined the difficulty of setting out a framework for identifying what is Australian and what is un-Australian, and the associated problem of asking people to follow a values’ set if you can’t explain it.

The Prime Minister made some common sense points. All who want to live here should aim to be in the workforce, and it is extremely difficult to do that if you don’t speak English.

Further, universal and accessible education is an Australian priority and all children should be sent to school.

However, these are not quite values.

The Prime Minister will face the charge he is catering to the right wing of the Coalition and One Nation voters by encouraging their concern about who lives here and the security of our borders.

The further charge will be he is engaged more in symbolism than concrete action.

But the reality is if he is responding to the concerns of a significant number of voters, he is doing his job.