Tony Burke puts focus on marginal gains as China threat hovers offshore

Chinese warships conducting live-fire exercises off our east coast? A piddling distraction. A rush of new citizenships, coincidentally in seats vital to Labor, are the Albanese government’s number one priority.

Thousands of new Australians received citizenship in Sydney last weekend — a day they’ll never forget. Tony Burke hopes they’ll remember him come the election.

According to Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke, a “terrible” thing is afoot in our immigration system. So terrible that I hesitate to broach it, because it is truly terrible.

To get an inkling of how terrible this is, think of the most terrible thing you can about our immigration system and then multiply it tenfold. This terrible situation in question, at least according to Burke, consists of a “huge backlog” in applications for Australian citizenship. Applicants have to wait a long time before their new status is conferred.

And when Burke says they have to wait a long time, he means a terribly long time. How long? Well, according to the Department of Home Affairs, 90 per cent of applications result in conferral of citizenship within six months of the approval date. No-one, aside from Burke that is, seems to have twigged this is absolutely appalling, dreadful, and terrible.

“The fact that there was such a backlog and people wanted to make the commitment and councils not holding enough ceremonies was holding people back,” he told Sky News last week. “That was a terrible situation.”

Perhaps not wanting to traumatise us, Burke did not elaborate on the terrible consequences that have resulted from applicants waiting an average of only 105 days before approval and conferral. We can only speculate. Were they throwing themselves in front of fast-moving trains? Weighing themselves down and jumping into the Parramatta River? Self-immolating outside government shopfronts?

Credit to Burke though, for he will personally rectify this terrible state of affairs. Overriding the councils, he has directed the holding of mass conferral ceremonies – 25 in all, comprising nearly 13,000 new citizens.

Not only that, Burke has also instructed his department to arrange these ceremonies to suit his calendar, thus ensuring he can preside. And to top it off, the scheduling is such all the new chums will be able to enrol to vote in time for this year’s new election.

Forget piddling distractions like Chinese warships conducting live-fire exercises off the east coast of Australia. This is the Albanese government’s number one priority.

Understandably, the thousands of new Australians who were conferred citizenship last weekend at Olympic Park in Homebush, Sydney, were delighted at receiving this honour. They will remember this day for the rest of their lives. As for Burke, who spoke at the ceremonies, he is very much hoping that come election day they will also remember the nice Labor minister with the cheesy smile who made it all happen.

Tony Burke at last week’s citizenship ceremony at Sydney’s Olympic Park. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Burke insists he is not exploiting this for political gain. Meanwhile the Coalition says his actions amount to “industrial scale seat stacking”. But Burke has his defenders. Just ask former ABC journalist and teal MP Zoe Daniel.

“I see no evidence to prove that,” she said last week when asked about the allegations. “Unfortunately this sounds like the usual Coalition dog-whistling on migration.”

That says a lot about the teals and their claims to be independent. For Daniel, it is a mere coincidence that Burke decided to super-size conferral ceremonies just a couple of months before an election that is predicted to result in minority government. And there is nothing suss in that the Sydney mayors who normally organise these ceremonies were blindsided by Burke’s claims of a ‘backlog’.

Continuing to take our lead from Daniel, we should not read anything into The Daily Telegraph’s revelation that most of those who became new citizens last weekend live in marginal Western Sydney seats (including Burke’s) so vital to Labor.

Likewise, we should not infer any shenanigans over the selective make-up of the dignitaries. Burke’s office invited multiple Labor MPs and candidates to these ceremonies to schmooze with the grateful participants. Conversely, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg was only given two days’ notice.

One of the Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea. Picture: Australian Defence Force

And according to independent and Fowler MP Dai Le, Burke’s office never invited her. If so, this was contrary to the protocol for these ceremonies. which is designed to ensure balance and non-partisanship. Burke claimed she had boycotted the occasion, a claim Le says is a lie. Funnily enough he did not forget his party’s candidate for Fowler, Tu Le, who was part of the Labor throng.

As for the sudden urgency for these ceremonies, remember Burke assumed his current portfolio in July last year. Logic would dictate the waiting period for citizenship ceremonies has blown out immensely since then, given his overnight impulse to hold them en masse. Right?

Except that it has not. As mentioned, currently 90 per cent of applications result in conferral of citizenship within six months of their approval. In August 2024, just one month after Burke was landed with the immigration ministry, that period was eight months. Yet he expects us to believe the waiting time is now a terrible situation – what, because it has fallen by 25 per cent?

Pro-Palestine protesters outside Burke’s Sydney electoral office. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

But as per Daniel’s breezy dismissal, this is nothing untoward. There is no evidence whatsoever that Burke and his cronies were usurping this process to ingratiate themselves with their new constituents. And to think she was a journalist before she became an MP. As for Daniel’s accusation of “dog-whistling”, that’s rich coming from a Labor poodle.

Characteristically, Burke attempted to dismiss these accusations with forced nonchalance.

“I just say to the people who are complaining, have a bit of patriotism about this,” he said last week. “People standing up and saying, ‘I want to make a lifelong pledge of commitment to Australia’ is a good thing.”

There are many words that come to mind when I think of Burke. Patriotism is not one of them, particularly given his moral cowardice and weasel excuses for not initially condemning the October 7 attacks and his cravenness in not calling out the crowds in his electorate who took to the streets to celebrate the atrocities.

In fairness, he did show a bit of patriotism at the time. Less than a month after the attacks he was proudly championing Canterbury-Bankstown Council’s decision to fly the flag – that is, the Palestinian flag.

As for his explanations concerning the citizenship saga, it would be impolite of me to say Burke has repeatedly lied. I will simply observe, to use one of his favourite adjectives, that he has a terrible understanding of the truth.