Immigration Minister Peter Dutton concedes he'll have to rewrite the government proposed citizenship reforms - now struck off the Senate's notice paper - while Labor lashed out at the proposed language proficiency requirement.

"We haven't seen those sorts of double standards in citizenship law since the years of the White Australia Policy, and Labor's certainly not about to jump to support that sort of change," said Labor's citizenship spokesman Tony Burke, as quoted by the ABC. 

In another interview with Sky News, Mr. Burke said: "If you came from China to Australia you need university-level English, if you came from Canada, you didn't need university-level English.  If you came from India, you needed university-level English, if you came from Great Britain you didn't."  He added, "It was an appalling policy, the likes of which we haven't seen since the White Australia Policy.  I am glad it has been knocked back.  Peter Dutton should back down on this."

Burke referred to the original proposal's requirement for many immigrants to pass an English test that included reading, writing, listening, and speaking at a 'Level Six' university level.  But those from Anglophone countries - the UK, Republic of Ireland, Canada, the US, and New Zealand - would not have to take the test.

Mr. Dutton shot back, saying that Burke "said only a couple of years ago that he believed it was sensible to have an English language test as part of the citizenship test".

Dutton has offered to reduce the language requirement to accept migrants who pass an English entrance exam at the Level 5 on the international testing standard, rather than Level 6 as previously proposed.  But he's not signalling any desire to soften the rest of the package.

Labor, The Greens, and the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) all objected to the language test.  NXT said the citizenship bill was still "deeply flawed", including the measure to increase the wait period for citizenship from one to four years.