goldchoccycoin

Hi All,

Had the ceremony last night and am now a proud Aussie! The ceremony was great - not entirely what I was expecting but great nontheless!

I arrived early and after filling in my electoral enrolment form managed to get a seat in the front row. As the rest of the participants made their way in and we waited for the ceremony we were serenaded by the Brisbane Army Band. I thought when they arrived that we'd get the usual Aussie 'anthems' - Still Call Australia Home, Waltzing Matilda etc. but no, we got the theme tune from 'The Flintstones' and 'Hello' by Niall Diamond including a very good lounge style singer in his army finery! Hilarious! Not in anyway relevent and must have been a tad confusing for some of the conferees but I had a good laugh!

Then the 'Official Party' arrived (Councillor de Wit, some rep for DIAC and Mayor 'Can-Do' Newman). Then an Indigenous group did a brilliant dance and fire ceremony - really excellent. Few speeches followed and then we made the pledge, which I found quite emotional actually! After an obligatory 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Oi, Oi, Oi' led by Can-do we had a great speech from the 'New Citizens rep'.

The next part had me in stitches - we were entertained by one of the many cultural groups from the area and this time it was a Swiss Yodel group! I have to say no one else seemed to be quite as amused as I was, but I thought it was hilarious. They were very good but it was just funny!

Finally it was all over and they played 'I am, you are, we are Australian' on the big screen as we left which again I found emotional.

Then as a new Australian I made my way to a bar and got a little bit tipsy and stood around with a cheesy grin all night and told everyone who would listen that I'd just become a Citizen - and had positive responses all night. My mates then made me sing 'Khe Sanh' (Cold Chisel) with no mistakes before they would accept me as an Australian.

Overall a great experience and well worth the wait - 8 years!

Good luck to all on their visa and citizenship journeys.

Cheers!

Alan Collett

Congratulations! It's a fantastic thing - to say, yes, I want to be a citizen of this fabulous country.

Very best wishes.

paulry

Congratulations and well done! Thanks for sharing that

looky

Congrats. Is the electoral enrolment form the voters register? Is that compulsory as part of the process?

njk435

You don't have to register at the ceremony,however all Australians must be registered to vote. It is also a requirement to vote in elections.
See: http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/index.htm for details.

Pollyana

Sort of - its a requirement to turn up at the polling station. No one can make you actually vote

comet555

I disagree with the whole mandatory voting thing. I suppose you could just always go and then not actually vote. I'm sure it does get more people interested in the process although I'd prefer if only the people with a bit of an opinion voted.

If you couldn't care less and know nothing about the candidates or parties then what's the point?

Pollyana

Yea, I don't agree with it being mandatory either, hence my when someone pointed out to me that you only have to turn up, no-one can force you to actually vote