Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the conclusion of government business in the Senate a few minutes ago, the government's citizenship bills will today be struck from the Notice Paper of the Senate and will no longer be before the parliament. This is a great victory for every person who wanted to pledge allegiance to this country and make a commitment to Australia and knew that this government was going to try to block them. The delay that would mean some people would wait more than a decade before making a pledge to Australia has been rejected. The demand for university-level English has been rejected.

But I would urge those celebrating this moment, who have been involved in this campaign all around Australia, to know that this government will try again. If under current law you are able to apply now, I would recommend you do so, and I would recommend to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection that those applications that have been waiting should now be processed. The Labor Party look forward to going to citizenship ceremonies where people who this government tried to block are able to make a pledge of commitment to Australia and we can say back to them, 'Welcome home!'