George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I had the great pleasure of attending a number of citizenship ceremonies throughout the Dawson electorate on Australia Day, 26 January. I would like to thank the mayors, councillors and organisers at the Bowen Shire Council and the Whitsunday Regional Council for citizenship ceremonies that they held in Ayr, Bowen and Airlie Beach. I would also like to congratulate those who had Australian citizenship conferred on them at these ceremonies. Due to time and distance, I was not able to attend all the ceremonies in the electorate. At the northern end of my electorate, new citizens including Laura Camilleri, Samantha Crawford, Thomas Theverumalayil, and Noman Unar, were welcomed with a warm day of nearly 34 degrees for Australia Day, backed up by a 38-degree Sunday, so it was a great warm welcome for our new Aussies in Townsville.

Further south, the new citizen list in Mackay may be a reflection of the region's strong population growth in recent years. My congratulations to new citizens including the Abria family, the Ackermann family, the Agustin family, Jonathan and Jon of the Arcega family, the Bajamundi family, Maxwell Cameron, the Chabata family, Maria and Miguel Clutario, Rachel Constantin, Danilo and Darren of the Cruz family, Sasmit and Sweta Dahall, the Dimarucut family, Charles and Dylan of the Gosling family, Nicholas Gover, Adline Graffini, Mr Gurtej, Samantha and Shane Jones, Liz McGann, Ebony Newton, Mark Nixon, Edgard Pascual, Jeffrina Prinsloo, Jesse Rademeyer, Edith Radke, Michelle Ranola, Danilo and Queenie Salomes, Palmer Sanga, Donna Sanim, Amitava Sarkar, Prabha Srinivasan, the Strydom family, Faith Tshuma, Sheldon and Ethan-Lee of the Upton family, the Veldez family, Yogesh Vasudeva, Briony and Peter Wilson and the Wooldridge family. I want to say to all of those people: congratulations on becoming an Australian citizen.

They say that Australia is the lucky country, but the reality is: many of us—me included—are lucky to be born here, inheriting all the rights and responsibilities that come with Australian citizenship. But these men and women that I have known here in parliament today made the choice to be Australian, and that is a big thing. We look forward to their contributions to our community as Australian citizens. As our national anthem says in the second verse, 'With courage let us all combine to advance Australia Fair.' Well done to them all.

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