Australia celebrates Citizenship Day

On Sunday, Australia welcomed more than 1,110 people from 88 countries as Australian citizens as part of the annual Citizenship Day celebrations.

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton congratulated over 390 new Australians at a special citizenship ceremony at Calamvale Community Sports Centre, encouraging them to commit to the Australian values of democracy, respect, security and freedom.

“Today, we celebrate our values and respect for each other, and think about what unites us as Australians,” Mr Dutton said. “Citizenship is a privilege to have, not a birthright. Today all Australians are encouraged to join our newest citizens as they make the pledge to our country and start their own Australian story.”

More than 4,480 people from 131 countries had Australian citizenship conferred at 87 citizenship ceremonies in the week leading up to Australian Citizenship Day.

The top countries of origin for conferees included India, United Kingdom and South Africa.

As part of the nationwide celebrations for Australian Citizenship Day, the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove presided over a special ceremony at Government House in Canberra.

Major ceremonies were also held at Government House in Melbourne, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin and Customs House in Sydney.

Article published 19th September 2017