Monday, 26 January 2026
Sydney Opera House Forecourt
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales

Thank you, Yvonne, for your welcome to Country. I too acknowledge the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and nearby waterways, their Elders, past, present and emerging.  I also acknowledge the Traditional Owners of all lands across our State and First Nations people here today.

Welcome everyone, to the Sydney Opera House. Today, on Australia Day, in this iconic place of arts and creativity, we gather to welcome 350 new Australian citizens. 

This ancient and beautiful meeting point of sea and land is known by the Traditional Owners and Custodians as Tubowgule,  meaning “where the knowledge waters meet.”[1]   

It is here that freshwater and saltwater flow into each other, which has provided a rich food resource of fish, mussels, yabbies and other marine life sustaining Australia’s First Nations people for tens of thousands of years.  Over those millennia, it has been the focal point of gathering, ceremony and celebration.  Today, we again gather here for ceremony and for celebration.  

In thinking of what Australia means today, I am reminded of the words of First Nations leader Noel Pearson, who identified three parts in the story of our nation.[2]  The first is its “ancient [Indigenous] heritage”[3] the oldest continuous living culture in the world, to which I have just briefly referred.   

The second part is our “British inheritance, the structures of government and society… fixing its foundations in the ancient soil”[4] and which remains the foundation of our democracy.

The third is “its multicultural achievement: a triumph of immigration”[5] of which you are part.   

These three, as Pearson tells us, form “one indissoluble commonwealth”.[6]  To put it more colloquially, as has been captured in that much-loved song: “we are one, but we are many”.[7]  

Today, on Australia Day, we reflect on, affirm and re-affirm our commitment to what unites us - our love of and loyalty to this land and its people; [8]  of respect for the rule of law, and our democratic system of government,[9] which confers rights as well as responsibilities including voting in Australian elections.

We also affirm our Australian values, based on “freedom, respect [for others], and fairness and equality of opportunity” [or, as we say in Australia, a ‘fair go’ for all].  These values are “central to our community remaining secure, prosperous and peaceful.”[10]   In short, as Australians, we look out for each other and we look after each other.  

Those rights and responsibilities, those values are contained within the pledge that you, the 350 conferees, will soon make as you take this final step to become citizens of this nation.  It is a solemn pledge, to be lived fully every day. 

Being an active citizen - contributing, volunteering, looking after your families, lending a hand to others - which is such an integral part of our community, are all part of being Australian. The strength that you, today’s conferees, bring as new citizens is that you each have already ‘signed up’, of which today is not a culmination but a continuation of your contribution to our nation.  

We are almost at the moment when this all comes to fruition, but can I say to today’s conferees from 50 nations: what a wonderful memory, to become an Australian citizen on Australia Day on the forecourt of Australia’s most iconic building.  Australia is immensely proud to welcome you. By pledging your commitment as Australian citizens, you will soon join more than 6 million[11] other Australians who have become citizens since the first citizenship ceremony in 1949.

We look forward to the contributions you will make and the important part you will play in the great and unfolding Australian story.   

[1] https://nit.com.au/21-03-2025/16933/the-story-beneath-the-opera-house-tubowgule-reclaims-a-long-history
[2] Noel Pearson: Quarterly Essay 55, A Rightful Place: Race, recognition and a more complete commonwealth (2014):https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/correspondence/337[3] ibid., p 68
[4] ibid.
[5] ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “I Am Australian”, The Seekers:

“We are one, but we are many And from all the lands on earth we come”
[8] Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, page 8:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship-subsite/files/our-common-bond-testable.pdf
[9] Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, page 24:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship-subsite/files/our-common-bond-testable.pdf
[10] Australian Citizenship: Our Common Bond, page 34:

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship-subsite/files/our-common-bond-testable.pdf[11]  https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/citizenship-statistics#