Claim crossbencher excluded from citizenship ceremony rejected

A citizenship ceremony in southwestern Sydney has sparked a serious allegation against the Home Affairs Minister.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is facing a serious allegation that he breached ministerial conduct by excluding an independent MP from a major citizenship ceremony in Sydney while inviting the crossbencher’s Labor challenger.

More than 4500 people became citizens during the three-day event in Olympic Park over the weekend, including now-voters in the division of Fowler.

The federal seat’s holder Dai Le said she was not invited, but Mr Burke’s office told NewsWire the minister had “made it clear” she “was welcome” to attend at a previous ceremony.

“When the minister met Dai Le at the ceremony in Liverpool he made it clear to her that she was welcome to attend the ceremonies at Homebush,” a spokesperson said.

“Fairfield Council was invited by the department to every ceremony where someone from that LGA was being given citizenship.

“In addition, the minister intervened to ensure Dai Le could address the ceremony at Liverpool.”

A Home Affairs spokesperson also told NewsWire all official requirements had been met for the weekend ceremonies.

“The department has invited the local federal MP according to the locality of the ceremonies and a senator from a different political party – per the requirements of the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code,” they said.

Fowler MP Dai Le says she was not invited to a major ceremony where thousands were granted citizenship, including new voters in her electorate. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor’s candidate in Fowler Tu Le was invited to the citizenship ceremony. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Labor’s candidate Tu Le did attend and reaped the benefits of photo-ops with new Australians.

It comes against a backdrop of claims that Labor has been rushing through citizenship ceremonies to stack electorates in its favour.

The Albanese government has rejected the allegations.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said on Monday it was “extraordinary behaviour … in the dying days of a desperate government to schedule these unscheduled, unprecedented, extraordinary Home Affairs Department citizenship ceremonies to ram through 12,000 citizenships in the days before the election is called”.

Mr Burke told Sky News last week the mass ceremonies had been held to help clear a “huge backlog”, and brushed off any suggestion there was a political advantage for Labor in the events.

“I don’t know if you’ve got some secret insight as to which way people are going to vote. I don’t,” he said.

“What we had was a huge backlog … of people who were entitled to have these citizenship ceremonies and different councils weren’t having enough ceremonies.

“I just say to the people who are complaining, have a bit of patriotism about this. People standing up and saying, I want to make a lifelong Pledge of Commitment to Australia is a good thing.”

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson says a push to clear a citizenship backlog is a sign of the ‘dying days of a desperate government’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been accused of breaching ministerial conduct. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Home Affairs’ handling of the citizenship ceremonies was set to be probed during senate estimates on Monday.

Senator Paterson told Sky News ahead of the hearings that Mr Burke “really needs to answer some questions about this today and I’ll be putting questions to the Department of Home Affairs about this today”.

Asked if he thought excluding Dai Le was a ministerial breach, the man vying for Mr Burke’s job said: “Yes, I think it clearly does and I’ll have more questions for the Home Affairs Department about this today and other invitations that they might have made or not made to other politicians.”

“These ceremonies are happening all around the country at the moment and it looks like they are playing political favourites here, but that will be a very serious issue for the Department of Home Affairs, for the secretary, Stephanie Foster,” Senator Paterson said.

“And I want to understand what, if anything, the department did to satisfy itself that this wasn’t being abused for partisan political purposes as it very clearly appears that it was.”

Originally published as Claim crossbencher excluded from citizenship ceremony rejected