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February 25, 2025
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke directed his department to schedule industrial-scale citizenship ceremonies during a "window" when he was available to personally preside over almost 13,000 people becoming Australians.
The Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster revealed the details in a heated Senate Estimates hearing yesterday, as a fresh war of words exploded over Mr Burke's citizenship bonanza.
Meanwhile, new data obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveals that the overwhelming majority of those who gained citizenship at the Olympic Park ceremonies over the weekend live in a handful of battleground seats that could decide the election.
Approximately 970 of the 4500 new Australians who gained citizenship at Olympic Park live in the Parramatta local government area. The electorates covered by the Parramatta LGA include the marginal Labor seats of Parramatta (held on a 3.7 per cent margin) and Reid (held on a 5.2 per cent margin). The next highest number of new citizens came from Liverpool, mainly covering the Labor electorates of Werriwa (on a 5.3 per cent margin) and Fowler (held by independent Dai Le on a margin of just 1.4 per cent).
About 290 new citizens came from Ryde, which is entirely within the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong.
With the exception of Fowler, these seats are expected to come down to the wire.
Coalition figures have previously accused Labor of an "industrial-scale seat-stacking exercise" by adding new voters in the knife-edge electorates. A number of Labor MPs were present at the mass citizenship bonanza, including a number who were officially invited by the Home Affairs department.
As the Telegraph revealed on Monday, Labor Fowler candidate Tu Le was among the Labor figures present at Friday's ceremony. Hours later, Mr Burke was a guest of honour at a fundraiser for Ms Le, attended by some 500 people.
In audio of his speech, leaked to the Telegraph, Mr Burke attacked Fowler MP Ms Le for raising concerns about the preelection citizenship blitz.
The comments infuriated Ms Le, who yesterday said: "He's actually using new Australians as a shield against legitimate concern and criticism about Labor's politicisation of citizenship ceremonies on the eve of an election."
In a heated Senate Estimates yesterday, Ms Foster revealed Mr Burke intervened to ensure that he could personally present the citizenship certificates to new Australians at the Olympic Park ceremonies.
"He asked us to schedule post ceremonies and obviously gave us a window of availability," she said.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said: "Home Affairs should never have scheduled citizenship ceremonies at the minister's personal convenience if this was really about clearing the backlog and not about political campaigning."
