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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1422 ..
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
Question No. 197
Citizenship Ceremonies - Mementos
Has the longstanding custom of providing to participants in citizenship ceremonies a modest memento of their taking out Australian citizenship been discontinued: if so
(a) what led to this decision; and
(b) will you move to reinstate the custom.
MRS CARNELL - The answer to the Member's question is as follows:
The custom of providing a gift to participants at citizenship ceremonies in the ACT was discontinued in August 1995.
(a) Several factors led to this decision:
(i) the giving of an Australian native plant posed problems of:
- being resource intensive to arrange;
- being subject to the possibility of losing condition or being inconvenient to recipients who do not have a garden;
(ii) the giving of a champagne glass posed different issues:
- being culturally inappropriate; and
- not being locally made (most recently the stock was made in France).
(b) From the June 1996 ceremony I intend to give each candidate a locally made lapel badge featuring the ACT flag to mark the occasion of the granting of citizenship. All children have continued to receive a poster and all candidates the booklet Australia's Constitution from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
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