Coalition to force councils to grant citizenships on Australia Day

THE Coalition will force every Australian council to hold a citizenship ceremony on Australia Day, a move that has “delighted” Liberal Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson but has been branded as “heavyhanded” by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA).

The change, announced on Sunday, is part of an update to the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code.

Councils must now also hold a second citizenship ceremony on Australian Citizenship Day (September 17), but will be able to continue to hold further ceremonies on other days throughout the year.

For the first time, the ceremonies will also have a “recommended dress standard”, “given the significance and formality of the event”.

The new legislation follows two Melbourne councils deciding not to reference Australia Day in its celebrations on January 26 and the Coalition subsequently removing the right for those two councils to hold citizenship ceremonies.

Ms Henderson said the Coalition believed “there should be greater respect for our national day of celebration”.

“I am delighted that our government is taking very strong action to ensure that all councils are required to conduct citizenship ceremonies on January 26, which prevents rogue councils from undermining Australia Day celebrations.”

ALGA president David O’Loughlin said there had been “zero consultation” about the change.

“I’m sure if they had consulted, they’d find that about 25 per cent of councils hold it on a different day for very sensible reasons – it’s too hot on the day so they hold it the evening before, it’s a public holiday so the pay rates make it not very sensible if no-one’s going to turn up, or they have it the week before so that everyone on Australia Day is already an Australian citizen.

“This smacks of something that is very heavyhanded to deal with a problem that is not related to citizenship, so we’re very surprised.”