Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Australia Day

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (14:07): I would like to acknowledge all the new citizens that became Australian citizens on Australia Day this year. I attended a number of different ceremonies – in Golden Plains, which was in Haddon; in the City of Melton, which unbelievably had 800 citizens that became Aussies in one day and then 400 the next, which was just massive; and then in the City of Ballarat, which had 64 new citizens. When I look across and see all the new citizens, they are proud to be Aussies. They are there waving the Australian flag.

As part of those citizenship ceremonies we also saw a number of community awards for various shires. I attended the Golden Plains, the Melton and the City of Ballarat ones. I would like to acknowledge the recipients of those awards and congratulate them on their work in supporting the community.

I also want to make the point – and to support Ms Crozier’s point before – that what we saw leading up to Australia Day was disgusting. When you have got public statues being literally cut off at the feet, that is not acceptable in this country. There is no other way to say it – it is just not acceptable. So I hope to see every person in this chamber condemn those horrible attacks in the strongest possible fashion, because that was un-Australian.