Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to put on the record today my sincere thanks to two different organisations in my electorate who hosted wonderful citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day. This is the third year that the Currumbin-Palm Beach RSL have hosted the largest citizenship ceremony on the Gold Coast. This year 94 new citizens attended the wonderful ceremony that was also supported by veterans in my community, by the light horsemen in the community and by our pipe band. It was a wonderful ceremony. It was also supported by Selwyn Apanui, a representative of our Indigenous community, and Andrew Gee, a wonderful bush poet, who brought the house down with his poetry on the day. It was an extremely hot day, but I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the morning. I would like to personally thank Bill Thompson, the Deputy Chairman of the Currumbin-Palm Beach RSL, and his team for the wonderful ceremony they put on in recognising the newest Australian citizens on the Gold Coast. They came from places like Kazakhstan, Zambia, Peru, Japan and Russia. It was a wonderful celebration on Australia Day welcoming our new citizens.

The next ceremony, in the evening, was hosted by the Lions Club of Mudgeeraba and was different altogether. It was an Aussie barbecue where we welcomed 27 new Australian citizens to the Gold Coast and indeed to our way of life on the Gold Coast. They came from places like Zimbabwe, Poland, South Africa, Canada and Japan. I want to pay tribute to the MC, Lion Ken Phillips, and his team for cooking a great barbecue—sausages and all the Aussie tucker that we had on that day. Those new Australian citizens got a great welcome into the Mudgeeraba community. I certainly felt very privileged to be the presiding officer and to be very much part of the ceremony welcoming these new Aussies into our Australian family.

I think Australia Day is a wonderful day to celebrate a citizenship ceremony. It brings special significance to those people taking out their citizenship on Australia Day. It means a lot to them. They certainly participated very well with the bush dancing at the Mudgeeraba community hall that night. I must admit after two very large ceremonies I was pretty worn out myself, but I was delighted to be the presiding officer and certainly make those people feel very welcome as part of our community.