Good afternoon, everybody.
I have the great honour to welcome you here to Government House today.
I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as the traditional custodians of this land that we’re gathered on for this very important ceremony, and also the families and the people with connections to the land here in Canberra and the surrounding regions.
I acknowledge those past, present and those emerging, and I also acknowledge all First Nations people who are joining us for the ceremony today.
Distinguished guests, you will very shortly become Australian citizens. You are the most important people in this room today, together with your families – those who have supported you on the way, those who come with you to see you take Australian citizenship. And you are so welcome here.
I particularly welcome you to Government House here in Yarralumla, because this is an important Citizenship Ceremony. Today is Citizenship Day, and it's also the week for new citizens, and I know just how important it is for everybody involved in welcoming people to citizenship, to reflect the fact that this week alone. Almost 14,000 people will become Australian citizens for the first time across the country. That's the scale of what is going on here. It's wonderful that in this important week, it's such a big number. You are part of a movement across the country this week.
Today we share this moment with SBS, you've been leaders for a long time in uplifting everyone with a spirit of belonging. Belonging with care and kindness is something that we talk about a lot here. I often say that the Government House and Admiralty House in Sydney, are not simply official residences or historic houses. They are certainly that, but they're actually places of peace and belonging, where absolutely everyone is welcome. And while you are here today, it becomes a place to celebrate our newest citizens.
A few weeks ago on the first of September, we celebrated Wattle Day, the start of Spring and our National Day, and it's a great opportunity for us to celebrate our national flower. Those of you that live in Canberra, you know already that the golden wattle flowers so vividly in our parks and gardens and lines our streets and highways. At the moment, there is an explosion of golden wattle.
It's also part of the emblem of the Office of Governor-General, and it features throughout this house, including the entrance. You might have seen a portrait by a very famous artist called William Dargie of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth – it's known as the Wattle Queen. She's wearing a wattle brooch given to her by Sir Robert Menzies, and she's a very young queen. That same broach was worn by Queen Camilla, when she came here in October last year with King Charles. That wattle brooch endures, and we've put it, just across the corridor from some very beautiful botanical paintings of wattle by Ellis Rowan. They're beautiful to look at.
The golden wattle is a joyous symbol of hope, happiness and resilience. We actually took the basket of wattle we had here on the first of September to Tokyo with us, and together with Simeon, we presented it to her Imperial Princess of Japan. I understand that she's in the process of pressing the flowers that made it all the way from here to Tokyo, as a mark of respect for the start of spring.
We give you a gift today, our newest citizens, in recognition of this very important step that you’re taking, a golden wattle seedling. They will grow into something beautiful, and they’ll help you always remember today. I do hope you plant it somewhere close, that will remind you of the hope and happiness of the lives that you have built and will continue to build here in Australia.
Our national anthem is another symbol of Australia that we celebrate today. I'm so pleased and proud that SBS has joined us to launch their project to translate Advance Australia Fair and the Citizenship Pledge into more than 60 languages.
In June, we had the great delight of celebrating SBS 50th anniversary during an incredible uplifting event at Admiralty House. I said there in celebrating half century of that wonderful public broadcaster that SBS speaks to us about our complexity and our beauty, the light and shade in our story. Above all, SBS speaks to us about belonging in a time of great challenge and unrest at home and overseas. It's a message we need to hear now more than ever and share with one another.
Belonging means being able to speak or to stay and acknowledge our country in a home or native language. I first heard the acknowledgement of country delivered in Arabic at the SBS Headquarters when I first visited and I was struck at the time by how emotional you were to be offering acknowledgement to First Nations people in the language of the nation you had left, and we now here in Australia, you knew what it meant in your heart. It hasn't just recited words in English. The work that SBS is doing is not just important for those that have most recently arrived, whether through those moments or the National Anthem, but also First Nations people.
The National Anthem’s lyrics describe really important things, our golden soil, the gifts of nature, our boundless plains to share. But now they’ll be spoken in Malaya, Sinhala, Thai, Polish or Assyrian, and many other of those 60 languages that it's been translated into, that is a truly remarkable and evocative experience and so moving. I'm so proud it will used today as a symbol of inclusion and a celebration of diversity that flourishes across our country.
A big thank you to SBS, for your insight and vision. I think you've updated with us today what might seem to be a simple act, one that can help unite our country and remind us of our extraordinary strength in diversity.
Now to citizenship. These ceremonies are a beautiful representation of the spirit of welcome. They are founded on the values of care and kindness and respect that are so deeply ingrained in the character of our modern Australia.
As your Governor-General, I have witnessed many profoundly moving ceremonies where people have become Australian citizens. From North Sydney to the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, to Sydney Harbor on Australia Day and to the remote northern territory in Nhulunbuy just recently in August. Each one of them has been uplifting and inspiring and filled with tender, powerful moments of family, friendship and belonging. I look forward to celebrating many, many more throughout my term.
For all of us, these ceremonies are such an important part of the Civic life of our nation. They are an opportunity to both formally and officially welcome you as new citizens of Australia. You've chosen to live and work here, to grow your families here, to invest the best of yourselves in this place, our country. I hope you all feel a deep sense of pride and belonging as you exercise the privileges and responsibilities of your citizenship.
Each of our ceremonies retells uniquely and powerfully the mighty story of our country: 65,000 years of the world's longest continuous culture, shared with us always so generously by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, joined to the strong and free democratic institutions we celebrate and work so hard to preserve. And then, of course, Australia's modern chapter of optimism, of belonging and progress, underpinned by remarkable multiculturalism.
Over half a century of immigration and refugee arrivals, over seven and a half million migrants and almost 1 million refugees. It's such a powerful story, and you bring your gifts of culture, history and heritage to enrich our communities and our future as a morally diverse, optimistic and successful nation. And as you do that, Australia offers you welcome. You belong. We're stronger as a country with you.
I want to congratulate you on establishing this new chapter of your life in Australia, as Australian citizens. Thank you for coming to Government House to share this important ceremony with us. It means a great deal with all of us. I look forward to hearing many more of your stories as we meet afterwards and into the future.
It gives me great pleasure to advise that this citizenship ceremony is being conducted as prescribed in the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 and the Australian Citizenship Regulation 2016.
As Governor-General of Australia, I am authorised under the Act to administer the Pledge of Commitment, which is the final step to you becoming an Australian citizen.
I will now read the Preamble from Schedule 1 of the Australian Citizenship Regulation 2016.
Australian citizenship represents full and formal membership of the community of the Commonwealth of Australia, and Australian citizenship is a common bond, involving reciprocal rights and obligations, uniting all Australians, while respecting their diversity.
Persons on whom Australian citizenship is conferred enjoy these rights and undertake to accept these obligations:
- by pledging loyalty to Australia and its people;
- by sharing their democratic beliefs;
- by respecting their rights and liberties; and
- by upholding and obeying the laws of Australia.
[Governor-General asked all Conferees to stand]
It is now your turn to make the Pledge of Commitment. This morning you were given a pledge card at registration. The card has two pledge options, Pledge 1 and Pledge 2 - one on each side.
Pledge 1 has the words “under God” in the first line, whereas Pledge 2 does not.
The words ‘under God’ are optional.
I will read the pledge with the words ‘under God’, however you do not need to repeat these words if you do not wish to do so.
I would now like to ask all conferees to please stand, if you are able, to recite the pledge.
Please repeat your preferred pledge line by line after me:
- From this time forward, under God,
- I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,
- Whose democratic beliefs I share,
- Whose rights and liberties I respect,
- And whose laws I will uphold and obey.
Congratulations, you are now Australian citizens! Please be seated.
Please join me in welcoming our new citizens!