PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA7 AUGUST 1988
The Government has decided to make 1988/ 89 a year of
citizenship. This will be an appropriate initiative flowing from
Australia's Bicentennial year, in which all Australians have
been celebrating their pride in their nationhood.
As I stressed in my Australia Day address, what makes a
person an Australian is having a commitment to Australia.
It is that common commitment which binds Aboriginal
Australians, the Australian-born of the seventh or eighth
generation and all those of their fellow-Australians born in
any of the 130 countries from which our people are drawn.
The commitment is all.
The ultimate expression of commitment is contained in the
Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance to which a person
subscribes when they take up Australian citizenship.
I know that many of the one million eligible people who are
not currently citizens have a strong commitmentto
Australia, and that there are many reasons why, people have
not taken the citizenship step. For example, many people
from Britain came here at a time when the difference between
being a British subject and an Australian citizen was not
clear.
The Government does not believe that it should force people
into taking up citizenship. For that reason, we do not
intend to threaten people with punitive measures if they do
not take it up. To do so would demean the value of
citizenship. In our free society, this must be a voluntary
step taken consciously and willingly.
The correct approach is to seek to persuade as many of our
fellow Australian residents as possible who are not citizens
to take up citizenship. This will be the objective of the
Year of Citizenship campaign.
Over the years i have attended many citizenship ceremonies.
I recently attended one in my electorate at which over 100
people from 25 different nationalities showed their
commitment to Australia by taking Australian citizenship.
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Like everyone else there, I found it a very moving and
joyous occasion, which was clearly one of the most important
nights of their lives for people who were granted
citizenship at the ceremony.
On that occasion, I spoke of the importance of diversity
within a united and cohesive Australia. This is exactly
what multiculturalism means.
I have asked my Ministers and backbenchers to give a high
priority to attending citizenship ceremonies in the future.
The Government will also be looking at ways of more closely
involving Local Government in the campaign.
my colleague, the minister for Immigration, Local Government
and Ethnic Affairs, Clyde Holding, will develop the detailed
mechanisms for the Year of Citizenship. 877