Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, Sunday, 3 December, I had the great honour and privilege of attending a very unique celebration in the form of a church service at my local parish at Goodna, in Ipswich. The reason it was unique was that, as part of that church service, we also celebrated a new Australian citizen in a citizenship ceremony. I am not sure, but such a ceremony could be the first in Australia—I will look at the record to see if it has been done anywhere else in the past.

I know there have been a number of Australian citizenship ceremonies in a range of settings. We have had them in council halls and community halls, and I know we have had them in hardware stores. If it is good enough to have citizenship ceremonies in hardware stores, I think it is more than appropriate to have them in churches.

Father Roger Burns is the man I am speaking of. He was made an Australian citizen. Father Burns was born in 1943 and originates from the United Kingdom. He has only been in Australia for four years. He spent the first two years at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Ipswich and the two most recent years at St Francis in Goodna. He is a wonderful man—somebody who has made the decision and deserves to become an Australian.

The ceremony was conducted by our local mayor, Paul Pisasale, and attended by local councillor Paul Tully and me. It was a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together to celebrate this person’s decision to become an Australian citizen—no small choice to make. I congratulate him and the church. (Time expired)