In its first year, the Albanese Government has slashed citizenship processing times by 42 per cent to an average of 7 months, repairing the former Coalition Government’s citizenship backlog and bringing it to its lowest level in six years.

Applications for citizenship by conferral blew out to a wait time of over two years under the former Liberal Government - a direct consequence of funding cuts to the Department of Home Affairs.

In 2019, Peter Dutton and the Liberals oversaw a system with 221,415 people waiting to have their citizenship applications processed and the largest-ever decline in citizenship applications – a drop of more than 100,000 applications.

“Our Government is committed to cleaning up the backlog and reinstating a citizenship system that is fair, efficient and inclusive,” said Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles

To mark this milestone, Minister Giles attended a citizenship ceremony at Knox City Council with Mary Doyle MP, her first ceremony since being elected as the member for Aston.

“I was thrilled to attend my first citizenship ceremony as Member for Aston and to share in the excitement and pride of 250 new citizens,” said Doyle.