Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005, but before I go to the detail of the bill I would like to highlight the incredible impact that migrants have had in Australia and in particular in my electorate. In doing so I would like to associate myself very strongly with the comments that were included in many of my colleagues’ contributions to this debate, in particular those of the member for Port Adelaide. He said a great deal of what I believe and think about this bill and I want to congratulate him for what I think was an excellent presentation on many aspects of the legislation.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who do not know Canberra all that well believe that this is the home only of politicians—for some part of the year—and public servants, with little regard to the multicultural side of our community. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. The data that I want to refer to is from the 2001 census. Obviously the numbers have changed a bit since then, but in 2001 the census showed that over 38,000 people in my electorate alone were born overseas. This included, at the time, over 1,200 from Germany, over 1,000 from Italy, over 700 from Malaysia and over 400 from Greece. In 2001 there were also over 40,000 people in my electorate whose parents were both born overseas, compared with over 83,000 people whose parents were both born in Australia. This data demonstrates that Canberra is certainly an incredibly multicultural place.

I, like many of my colleagues, have the opportunity to attend many events in my community that are conducted and held by ethnic communities. Last Sunday, for instance, I had the pleasure of laying a wreath on behalf of my community at the Greek memorial up near the Australian War Memorial in commemoration of Oxi Day, or ‘No’ Day.

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