By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 25 January 2020: More than 27,000 people will mark this Australia Day by becoming Australian citizens – the
largest-ever number to make the pledge on 26 January.
Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs Alan
Tudge congratulated the tens of thousands who are scheduled to attend 454 ceremonies around the nation.
“Australia Day is an opportunity to celebrate our success as a multicultural nation and
reflect on what it means to be an Australia,” Mr. Tudge said.
“Citizenship is a chance for new migrants to make a pledge to uphold our laws and values
and contribute to our cohesive, open and inclusive society.
“A citizenship ceremony is an important event in every new citizens’ life and being able to
attend one on Australia Day adds extra significance.”
Australia Day is the most popular day for people to attend a citizenship ceremony, with
100,000 people becoming Australian citizens on our national day in the past six years.
In September 2019, the Morrison Government amended the Australian Citizenship
Ceremonies Code to require councils to hold a citizenship ceremony on Australia Day.
Every council required to hold a ceremony is doing so and almost 140 councils who would
be exempt under the code have chosen to hold a ceremony anyway.
“This is the first time we are requiring councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia
Day,” Mr. Tudge said.
“We want them to do the right thing as it is the most popular day for new migrants to
become an Aussie. This is the day that all of us can celebrate, whether born here or only
just becoming a citizen.”
The Government reached out to all councils affected by the recent bushfires, but all have
indicated they are going ahead with their ceremonies in recognition of their importance to
new citizens and the wider community.
More than 106,000 people have been welcomed as new Australian citizens in the last six
months.
Between 1 July and 31 December 2019, 106,704 people were conferred with Australian
citizenship, up from 48,983 in the same period in 2018, says a media release.
All citizenship applications are processed against a range of strengthened integrity
measures, introduced by the Government in 2015.
