SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR E. G. WHITLAM, M. P.,
AT A NATURALIZATION CEREMONY, LIVERPOOL COUNCIL CHAMBERS,
3 JUNE 1974
Australia has just come through a national election in
which, whatever you may hear to the contrary, there were clear
winners and clear losers. In the decision you are taking here this
evening, however, there are no losers, only winners. The nation
wins, because each new citizen represents an increase in the strength
of our national family and our national spirit. And each of you, as
a new citizen, wins personally from your choice to become an
Australian. By accepting our invitation to citizenship, you have
reaffirmed your earlier, perhaps hesitant, decision to seek your
future among us. Tonight you are identifying yourself officially
for the first time as Australians but you are not relinquishing
anything you hold dear from your past life. Since the arrival of the
first fleet in 1788, new settlers have been linking their own
future with that of this land people of two worlds blending in a
new loyalty to Australia. This has been our history and our strength
and is no less true tonight. You are adopting the most realistic
stance that you could adopt, one that accords with both the past and
the future, with your own interests and with the nation's interests.
Tonight you are acknowledging that your future is here
in Australia, but you are not attempting to sever the old roots that
will bind you forever to your first homeland. No one can dictate
to you what your deepest feelings should be what should be in your
heart tonight and I would not dare to try. Let me just say that
your official status from tonight confers on you two grounds for
pride, based on the strength of two cultures, two life-styles,
your ' share of the heritage'. In that respect you are to be envied
above those of us,, who share only one common heritage.
The cumulative impact of the 817,000 people who since
1949 have joined the national family-through citizenship has been
to change the very concept and content of that citizenship. Today,
people from more than 70 nations make up Australia, a nation
subservient to none, firmly and responsibly seeking its own destiny.
In the electorate of Werriwa alone, at the last census there were
57,000 people born overseas nearly one third of the total population
of the electorate. Thus we are creating a cohesive society of many
parts, where cultural diversity can lend interest, charm and enjoyment
to the national life without forfeiting that harmony, that inner sense
of belonging ' together with' is the expression of true nationhood.
One solid foundation for that harmony must be in
equal and indivisible citizenship rights. For that reason the
Government has already moved to end all discrimination in the conditions
of citizenship. Today we have one criterion, one oath, one ceremony,
with all discrimination banished. We make no distinctions on the
grounds of national origin or former citizenship, and certainly none
on the grounds of race. / 2
-2-
The widespread approval given to this new approach is
shown by the great increase in the rate of citizenship applications
under the new provision which became operative on 1 December 1973.
In 1972 a total of 38,402 people were granted citizenship. In 1973
this figure jumped to 57,102 an increase of nearly 50%. Further,
for the four months up to the end of April this year citizenship
applications continued to increase at an even higher rate. The verdict
of those who in the past eighteen months have decided to join the
national family cannot be denied Australian citizenship today is
more desirable than at any time in our history. The symbols of a
strong independent nationhood are not a cheap gimmick, an empty
gesture meant to impress ourselves rather than the world. There is
a wide and deep current of agreement in our society about what our
true national identity should be.
There is another quite objective statistical measure
of the confidence migrants now feel in Australia's future. The success
of a national immigration program is shown not only in the personal
efforts and sacrifices of those establishing themselves in a new land.
It is revealed in the statistics of those who, having tried the
great adventure, leave Australia with no intention of returning.
Since the Labor Government came to power, these figures have declined
from 33,172 in 1972 to 30,325 last year. This is the first
significant decline since 1964 in what we call the ' migrant drift',
and represents a resurgence of optimism in what Australia offers to
newcomers. Many of the things which have persuaded you, and thousands
of your fellow-migrants, to become Australian citizens are the result
of one man's efforts on behalf of our migrant people. That man is
Al Grassby, the Minister for Immigration a great friend, a stalwart
colleague, a true patriot, a fine Australian. No one has worked
harder for the welfare of migrants and achieved more solid and lasting
benefits for them and their families. It is a sad and bitter blow to
O me and the government that we have temporarily lost the services of
Al Grassby. It is a tragic irony that the forces he opposed so
staunchly and successfullyas a Minister, as a member of Parliament
the forces of hate, of prejudice, of ignorance, of racial
distrimination have now helped to defeat him. I know you will regret
this event as profoundly as I do. I know you will repudiate the
campaign tactics used against him, just as I and all decent Australians
repudiate them. They have no place in Australia, they have no place
in the kind of open and tolerant society that Al Grassby worked so
hard to achieve. I pay tribute to him here tonight. Ceremonies such
as this, here and all over Australia, are eloquent testimony to the
achievements of his public career, the strength of his character, the
breadth of his vision and the power of his ideals.
On behalf of the Australian Government and people Ii
welcome you all as new citizens of our nation and wish you every
happiness and success in the future.