Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would assume that, as a senator, the minister in this debate would have attended a few citizenship ceremonies. I have certainly attended many. What I know from the area where I live in Sydney and other areas is that citizenship ceremonies are usually held every couple of months. Certainly in the Sutherland shire area—the electorates of Cook and Hughes—a large citizenship ceremony is held on Australia Day. It is one of the largest throughputs of new citizens in the country on that day. The Sutherland Shire Council holds another ceremony, on average, every three months. The problem with the minister’s response was that he asserted that the possibility that so many new citizens who have already had their citizenship granted will lose their entitlement to get onto the roll under the government’s proposals because they have not enrolled before the day that the writs are issued will be balanced by the extension of the franchise to people who are going receive citizenship after the seventh day through to election day.