Where the new citizens in Burke’s spree would be voting
The Telegraph can now reveal the electorates which have greeted 13,000 new Australians after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke directed his department to schedule industrial-scale citizenship ceremonies.
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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke directed his department to schedule industrial-scale citizenship ceremonies during a “window” when he was available to personally preside over almost 13,000 becoming Australians.
The Home Affairs secretary made the admission in a heated Senate Estimates hearing, as a fresh war of words exploded over Mr Burke’s citizenship bonanza.
New data obtained by The Daily Telegraph revealed that the overwhelming majority of those who gained citizenship at Olympic Park over the weekend live in a handful of battleground seats that could decide the election.
The Telegraph can now reveal that of some 4500 new Australians who gained citizenship at Olympic Park over the weekend, approximately 970 live in the Parramatta local government area.
The electorates covered by the Parramatta LGA include the marginal Labor seats of Parramatta (held with a 3.7 per cent margin) and Reid (held with a 5.2 per cent margin).
The next highest number of new citizens came from Liverpool, mainly covering the Labor electorates of Werriwa (a 5.3 per cent margin) and Fowler (held by independent Dai Le on a margin of just 1.4 per cent).
About 290 new citizens came in Ryde, which is entirely within the ultra marginal seat of Bennelong, held by Labor but notionally Liberal after a redistribution.
With the exception of Fowler, these seats are expected to come down to the wire. Coalition figures have previously accused Labor of an “industrial-scale seat-stacking exercise” by adding new voters in knife-edge electorates.
A conga-line of Labor MPs were present at the mass citizenship bonanza, including a number who were officially invited by the Home Affairs department.
As the Telegraph revealed on Monday, Labor Fowler candidate Tu Le was among the Labor figures present at Friday’s ceremony.
Hours later, Mr Burke was a guest of honour at a fundraiser for Ms Le, attended by some 500 people.
In audio of his speech, leaked to the Telegraph, Mr Burke attacked Fowler MP Dai Le for raising concerns about the pre-election citizenship blitz.
“I never thought I would see the day when the representative for Fowler (Dai Le) was on radio today criticising the government for holding citizenship ceremonies.”
“The electorate of Fowler deserves someone who’s proud of people coming to Australia, starting a new life here, and making a Pledge of Commitment to Australia; and those are the values of Tu Le,” he said.
The comments have infuriated Dai Le, who accused Mr Burke of using new citizens as a “shield” against criticism.
“He’s actually using new Australians as a shield against legitimate concern and criticism about Labor’s politicisation of citizenship ceremonies on the eve of an election,” she told the Telegraph.
In a heated Senate Estimates Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster revealed the minister intervened to ensure that he could personally present certificates to new Australians.
“He asked us to schedule post ceremonies, and obviously gave us a window of availability,” she said.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson accused the government of “using the migration system for perceived political advantage”.
“Home Affairs should never have scheduled citizenship ceremonies at the minister's personal convenience if this was really about clearing the backlog and not about political campaigning,” he said.
Ms Foster also revealed that a number of people included in the 12,800 people gaining citizenship before the election originally came from Palestine.
That is despite the department on Friday saying no Palestinians were among the cohort of new Australians.
“It was our error that Palestine was not included in that (list),” Ms Foster said.
She said that all new citizens met the requirements, including “four years (living) in Australia and one year as a permanent resident”.
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Originally published as Where the new citizens in Burke’s spree would be voting
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