Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews’s revelation about the clause in the legislation to be introduced follows concerns raised in the Coalition partyroom that certain groups, such as women at home with children or traumatised refugees, would fail the citizenship test because of their circumstances.

Mr Andrews said the Department of Immigration and Citizenship would monitor results of the test for the first six months to determine whether a pattern emerged suggesting a group had particular difficulties.

Migrants in such a group could either be offered extra assistance if they had completed 400 hours of English tuition or the alternative test, he said.

“The legislation provides that there can be more than one test,” Mr Andrews said. “Although we are initially only setting one test, if we find there is a group of people who have a particular learning impairment, that another test will meet their requirements, then we will have the ability through the legislation to have another test.

“But we’ll monitor and see if we actually need that.”

Mr Andrews said he hoped the test would be up and running by Citizenship Day on September 17.