Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 31 May, I held a citizenship ceremony in my office for Mrs Gunster and her son, Scott. They needed to have their citizenship ceremony outside the usual citizenship ceremonies that are conducted by my local council. Members on both sides of this House would be regular attendees at citizenship ceremonies. I think it is one of the really special jobs that we as members of parliament do—going along and being there when people make that big decision to take out citizenship of our great nation. Saturday was very special for me because I have been a member of parliament for a very long period of time but during that period of time I had never previously performed a citizenship ceremony in my office. Unfortunately, the citizenship ceremonies, as I think I previously mentioned, of the local government area that Mrs Gunster lived in were going to be conducted after the period of time in which she needed to get her citizenship to get her first Australian passport. I would like to congratulate her and Scott for giving me the honour of being able to preside over their citizenship ceremony. I know we have two great Australians who are now part of our nation.