Tony Burke invokes citizenship saga as part of Watson campaign launch

Tony Burke has invoked his pre-election citizenship blitz, declaring Peter Dutton is ‘getting angry about people making a pledge of commitment to Australia’.

Tony Burke at the citizenship ceremony at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has invoked his pre-election citizenship blitz as part of his campaign launch to save his Western Sydney seat of Watson, declaring Peter Dutton is “getting angry about people making a pledge of commitment to Australia”.

The election pitch to party faithful was made as prominent members of the Muslim community ramped up their own campaign against pro-Palestinian Independents running in Watson, slamming the candidates’ decision to sign a communique defending the two Bankstown hospital nurses claiming they would kill Israeli patients.

Lebanese Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi said the Sydney nurses’ behaviour had been “inexcusable” and that it was “alarming” for figures in The Muslim Vote to defend them.

Dr Rifi – a four-decade doctor who is now accelerating his “Friends of Burke” campaign – said the signing of a statement claiming that the nurses were victims of “manufactured outrage” was particularly concerning because of the fact co-signatories included radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Watson is set to be a key seat in the upcoming election, with The Muslim Vote all but confirming it would preference Liberal over Labor in the electorate, which boasts one of the biggest Muslim populations in the country.

Speculation over tactics to hold seats like Watson exploded earlier this week amid revelations Mr Burke’s Home Affairs Department had ordered 25 additional citizenship ceremonies be held over coming weeks – many in hotly-contested electorates – to ensure nearly 13,000 people became citizens.

While Mr Burke said the reason behind the boom of ceremonies was because of the lower-than-expected number of events held on Australia Day, western Sydney mayors and the Coalition accused Labor of concocting claims of a citizenship backlog and rather engineering an industrial-scale “vote-buying citizenship tactic”.

Despite the political fallout that followed the revelations, Mr Burke invoked the citizenship saga as part Watson campaign launch in southwest Sydney on Saturday.

Tony Burke is greeted at the citizenship ceremony at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

“This morning I’ve been out to Homebush ... 750 people stood up at Homebush, made a personal pledge of commitment to Australia, and every one of those 750 is now an Australian citizen. Every single one of them,” he said.

“Who here remembers their own citizenship ceremony? Put your hands up. I can see as you, every single person who just had their hand up, had a big smile immediately.

“Who is the person, if any of you saw it yesterday and the day before, who was in the media getting angry about people making a pledge of commitment to Australia? Peter Dutton. Peter Dutton out there getting angry.”

Mr Burke said the Opposition leader “gets angry a lot”, but admonished Mr Dutton for “getting angry about people making a pledge of commitment to Australia”.

The senior Labor figure, who remains a close ally of Anthony Albanese, said the Coalition and The Muslim Vote-backed independents running in his seat were simply seeking “to divide us”.

“There’ll be one thing that is constant with their messaging they put out there. They want to divide us ... that’s what they want to do,” Mr Burke said.

Dr Jamal Rifi’s Friends of Burke group will barrack for Labor in Watson and Blaxland, arguing those seats’ ministers – Tony Burke and Jason Clare – had been friends to the Muslim community. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Of the nearly 13,000 people to get citizenships before the election, most were from India (2365), followed by New Zealand (1929), Britain (853), Philippines (581), China (556), Pakistan (396), Vietnam (381) and Afghanistan (289).

Coalition sources told The Australian that the New Zealand cohort, in particular, were of concern, given they were more likely to vote for the party that in 2023 had made getting citizenship easier for those living in Australia for four years or more.

Mr Burke wrote to councils earlier month to inform them he had instructed his department to hold additional citizenship ceremonies between February 17 and March 4.

The ceremonies were organised to enable thousands of new citizens to enrol with the Australian Electoral Commission before polling day, with the events hosted so far featuring QR codes on massive screens directing people through to vote registration.

Dr Rifi’s Friends of Burke group will barrack for Labor in Watson and Blaxland (Jason Clare), arguing those seats’ ministers had been friends to the Muslim community and would be a stronger voice for Palestine in government.

“It is a sorry day for the Muslim community when wise men and mainstream organisations allow themselves to be deceived by Hizb ut-Tahrir,” he said, in reference to The Muslim Vote’s signature on the communique defending the Bankstown nurses.