THE Surf Coast Shire council has held their first online Australian citizenship ceremonies over Zoom.<\/p>\n
Each of the eight prospective citizens met individually online last week with Surf Coast Shire mayor Rose Hodge and chief executive officer Keith Baillie to say the pledge and formalise their decision.<\/p>\n
Cr Hodge said she was glad people were no longer having to postpone becoming Australian citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased that we can give people the option of having their citizenship ceremony conducted online so that they don\u2019t have to delay achieving this significant milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs mayor, welcoming our new citizens is one of my favourite tasks. While it\u2019s sad to miss welcoming people face-to-face, it\u2019s still really lovely \u2013 and a great privilege – to conduct the online ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara Murphy was one of the Surf Coast locals to become an Australian citizen through the online ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Formerly from Poland, Ms Murphy moved to Australia with her husband, Karl, more than six years ago, eventually settling on the Surf Coast.<\/p>\n
Ms Murphy said she was pleased to have the process finalised.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy application was approved in December, so I have been waiting for the ceremony. Then I got an email from to see if I wanted to participate in an online ceremony rather than wait, so I said \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The following week, Ms Murphy joined the ceremony through Zoom and became an Australian citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really good. It was a little under 10 minutes. First I was talking to the executive assistant and she just confirmed my identity, then she let me into the ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the mayor was there and the CEO. They said \u2018Hello and congratulations\u2019 and I repeated the pledge after the mayor and then they wished me a very happy life in Australia and on the Surf Coast, and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said there were many reasons she chose to become a citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to me that I can vote, and have full rights, and have the Australian passport as well. My son was born here and is also an Australian citizen, so both my husband and my son are Australian citizens and I wanted to join them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shire will be welcoming more citizens via teleconference on Wednesday, July 8.<\/p>\n
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THE Surf Coast Shire council has held their first online Australian citizenship ceremonies over Zoom. Each of the eight prospective citizens met individually online last week with Surf Coast Shire mayor Rose Hodge and chief executive officer Keith Baillie to say the pledge and formalise their decision. Cr Hodge said she was glad people were […]<\/p>\n