Maribyrnong City Council ‘pleased’ over Albanese Government’s changes to citizenship ceremonies

Inner-city council “pleased” over citizenship ceremony change from federal government for controversial date.

An inner-city Melbourne council has supported the federal government’s citizenship ceremony decision barely weeks after advocating for the change.

The Albanese government have allowed citizenship ceremonies can now be held either three days post or prior to January 26.

It comes after Maribyrnong City Council recently agreed to acknowledge January 26 is a “day of mourning” for first nations people and often symbolises loss and trauma.

“We are pleased to hear that the Federal Government has proactively changed the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on 26 January, “ Mayor Sarah Carter said.

The council did write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Immigration Minister Anthony Giles, Indigenous Minister Linda Burney and Maribyrnong MP Bill Shorten to advocate for for requirement to hold the ceremonies on Australia Day be removed.

They also wrote to advocate that the federal government consider changing the date of Australia Day to one “more suitable” for all Australians.

There has been a trend for inner-city councils to move away from citizenship ceremonies with Merri-Bek Council announcing a “day of mourning” in recent weeks.

The Greens-led council delivered after their First Nation Advisory Committee recommended the change due to Australia Day being a contentious date for the Indigenous community.

Meanwhile, Hume City Council approved more money to ensure they could hold more citizenship ceremonies next year.

The council will use $109,509 from the Covid Recovery and Reactivation Carry Forward Fund to host more ceremonies between February and June next year as they deal with the backlog created by Covid.

“Many people have actually been waiting to receive that citizenship because they can’t actually have their passports, which in our day and age is a very basic ask to have that,” Cr Sam Misho said.

“People want to go overseas to travel and see their loved ones, they haven’t been able to do this.

“This is not an addition, this is purely the completion of a task that Australia as a nation has started.”