Australian citizenship carries four responsibilities — obey the law, vote, defend Australia should the need arise, and serve on a jury if called. Paying tax is separately required by law. Volunteering and community participation are something different: warmly valued, actively encouraged, and not legally compulsory. Questions in this area often turn on telling the two categories apart.
Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond writes about community in two quite different registers, and reading them as one thing is a reliable way to answer a values question wrongly.
One register is obligation: what you must do. The other is culture: what Australians value and expect of each other. Both are testable. They are not the same, and the booklet does not blur them even though a quick read might.
What is actually required
The four responsibilities
As an Australian citizen you must:
- obey the laws of Australia
- vote in federal and state or territory elections, and in a referendum
- defend Australia should the need arise
- serve on a jury if called to do so
That is the complete list. Volunteering does not appear on it, and neither does joining a community organisation. Our guide to the responsibilities and privileges of Australian citizenship works through each of the four.
Paying tax is required by law
Tax sits slightly apart, and the booklet is explicit about its status: paying tax is an important way you directly contribute to the Australian community, and it is required by law.
Tax is paid out of the money you earn, whether from a job, a business or investments, and is collected by the Australian Taxation Office. There are also taxes on many goods and services, and state, territory and local governments collect taxes of their own to pay for services.
So if a question asks which contribution to the community is required by law, tax is a correct answer and volunteering is not.
What is valued and encouraged
Mateship and compassion for those in need
Australians value "mateship" — helping each other in times of need. The booklet's examples are deliberately small and domestic: taking a meal to an elderly neighbour, driving a friend to a medical appointment, visiting someone who is sick, frail or lonely.
This is not framed as charity by institutions. It is described as what people do for one another.
Volunteering
In that spirit of mateship, Australia has a strong tradition of community service and volunteering, to look out for each other and strengthen the community.
The booklet then describes what volunteering offers the volunteer, which is worth noting because it explains the emphasis: it is an opportunity to share knowledge, learn new skills, and increase your integration into and sense of belonging to the Australian community. There are many opportunities to volunteer in Australia.
Note the direction of that argument. Volunteering is presented as good for the person doing it, not only for the community receiving it — which is exactly why it is encouraged rather than required.
Active participation
Australia encourages all citizens to actively participate in society, on the basis that active citizens take on the responsibility and privilege of shaping Australia's future.
The examples given are broad: joining neighbourhood and local community organisations, volunteering to do social and community work, joining an arts or cultural organisation, and actively participating in political life.
Why the distinction matters
Values questions frequently describe a situation and ask whether it reflects Australian values, or ask what citizens are expected or required to do. The trap is a question that offers a genuinely admirable activity as the answer to a question about legal obligation.
Two checks handle it:
Ask whether the booklet says "must" or "is required by law". Obeying the law, voting, defending Australia, jury service and paying tax all carry that language. Volunteering does not.
Ask whether the sentence is about a value or a rule. Mateship, compassion and community service describe how Australians behave toward each other. They are real parts of the testable material and they are not enforceable duties.
Getting this right is not pedantry. Overstating the position — telling a new citizen that they are legally obliged to volunteer — would be wrong, and the booklet is careful not to. Our guide to Australian values questions covers how these questions are typically framed.
Supporting yourself, and keeping others safe
Two further expectations sit in this part of the material, both stated as things people should do.
Supporting yourself and your family. Everyone has a responsibility to try to support themselves and their families when they are able to do so. Note the qualifier — when they are able. This is not a statement that everybody must be self-supporting regardless of circumstances.
Helping to keep society safe. If people in Australia suspect a friend or neighbour may be planning a serious crime, they should report it to Australian government authorities as soon as possible. If someone sees or knows of a child being abused, they should report it to the police to investigate.
The booklet also states that online abuse — sometimes called cyber abuse — is not accepted in Australia. Its examples include sharing sexual photos or videos online without consent, stalking a person online, and making racially abusive comments about a person online, and it notes that many forms of cyber abuse are illegal.
What taxes pay for
The booklet answers the "why" question directly, and it is worth knowing because it turns an abstract obligation into a concrete one.
Many of the benefits Australians enjoy are made possible through taxes, which are spent on services including government-funded healthcare and education, defence, roads and railways, and social security. By working and paying taxes, you support the government in providing those services.
A worked example from the booklet
The material closes this section with a real illustration of community response: during Australia's bushfire season of 2019–20, which caused loss of life, property and wildlife along with environmental destruction, many multicultural communities collected money, clothes and food donations to help those affected. Members of the Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian communities in Victoria collected donations at shopping centres and fundraised through local community events, and members of the Sikh community donated thousands of bottles of water to communities and firefighters in Queensland.
It is included to make a point that also answers questions: participating in the Australian community is something migrant communities do and have done, not something demanded of newcomers by others.
Check yourself
- Name the four responsibilities of Australian citizenship.
- Is volunteering one of them?
- Which contribution to the community does the booklet say is required by law?
- What does the booklet say "mateship" involves? Give one of its examples.
- What three things does it say volunteering offers the volunteer?
- What should you do if you know of a child being abused?
- Name three services that taxes pay for.
Before the test
Learn the four responsibilities as a closed list, add tax as the thing separately required by law, and file everything else in this section under values rather than rules. That single sorting step answers most questions here.
Home Affairs publishes the booklet and updates it from time to time, so read the current edition on the official website rather than working from a summary.