What it’s like at one of Sydney’s so-called ‘vote-buying’ citizenship ceremonies

Cream suits, pink saris and hijabs arrived at Sydney Showground. From Iraq, Tonga, India and Norway; they came dressed in their Saturday best. Sierra Leone, Bhutan and South Sudan; children in crumpled shirts, begrudgingly tailing parents and siblings.

A microcosm of multicultural Australia sat under one corrugated iron roof, an estimated 750 soon-to-be citizens from Blacktown City Council or Hills Shire Council. Family, friends and supporters filled out the rest of the plastic seats.

“Welcome home,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says after the citizenship pledge and second verse of Advance Australia Fair.

Little do these citizens know they are in the middle of a swirling political drama; allegations an under-pressure federal Labor government is seeking political advantage through an “industrial-scale stacking exercise” of voters in marginal Sydney seats weeks out from an election.

The accusation is that, by conferring around 12,800 citizens across 25 ceremonies, Labor is seeking to ingratiate themselves with enough voters to tilt seats and potentially, an election. The minister dismisses that claim, saying it’s simply to address a significant backlog left by councils.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke with hundreds of new Australian citizens at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Two large screens behind the minister carry a message from the Australian Electoral Commission, reminding those in attendance they have a “right and responsibility” to enrol to vote.

Zimbabwean couple Pride and Miriam Mangeya arrived in Australia in 2017. After undertaking the application process over 18 months, they received the invitation for the ceremony just two weeks after they submitted the final part of the paperwork, in what Myriam says was a “very speedy process”.

But while they enjoyed the Welcome to Country, and the “very captivating, very welcoming” speech by the minister, Myriam says the emphasis placed on voting was disconcerting.

“OK, I’ll be frank. It didn’t seem like it was vote buying. But there was a bit too much focus from the Australian Electoral Commission on the voting,” she tells The Sun Herald, referring to brochures handed out during the ceremony.

“I would have wanted maybe brochures about what Australia is all about, even the pledge itself. So yes, the voting part, there’s just too much effort in that space.”

Yet others are dubious these ceremonies will have any effect on voting decisions, even if that was the intention. Hassan Khan, a Pakistani emigrant and associate professor with Central Queensland University, said he had been waiting a “long time” to become a citizen.

“Of course not,” Khan says when asked if the ceremony could alter his vote.

“I doubt that’s going to have an impact,” Silvia, a doctor and Hassan’s wife, adds.

“One of your children could be the prime minister one day,” says Indigenous elder Uncle Allan Murray during his Welcome to Country.

The nation’s newest citizens could determine the next prime minister in just weeks.

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