Transcript - 2GB Mornings with Mark Levy

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Communications
Shadow Minister for Western Sydney
Federal Member for Lindsay

Friday, 21 February 2025

Subject: Western Sydney; citizenship ceremonies; Federal election; Tony Burke; Immigration Minister. 

2GB Mornings with Mark Levy

Mark Levy

Let's bring in Melissa McIntosh. She's the Shadow Minister for Western Sydney. She's phoned the open line, obviously wanting to have a say about all of this. Melissa, good morning to you.

Melissa McIntosh

Good morning.

Mark Levy

Can you believe what's going on here?

Melissa McIntosh

I think it's a bit of a case of Tricky Tony and he's not getting away with trying to hoodwink Australians. He's getting caught out on this one. I heard the script just previously where he talks about patriotism, but there's nothing patriotic about politicising citizenship ceremonies when people have been waiting for such a long time, as Ned was saying, to become Australians. It's so personal and so special. But I don't think all those people, the 12,500 people, would be feeling very good about being a political plaything right now.

Mark Levy

And what Ned has said is right, and what you've just said is right, Melissa. I mean, it's such a special day. And I just spoke to a lovely lady who's come to this country from the old Yugoslavia and she's spoken about this being the best country in the world. She's so proud to be Australian.

I think she said words to the effect of she'd die for this country. There's somebody who's come to this country and made a great life in this country, and she probably will never forget the day that she took that oath and became an Australian citizen.

But all those people over the next three days are going to be packed into a room - 6,000 of them from Western Sydney take the oath. And thanks very much for coming. There's your visa, there's your citizenship certificate. Goodbye. It sort of defeats the purpose of what this is all about.

Melissa McIntosh

That's right. And it's not too much personal in being one of the masses, is there? My dad came out to Australia in the late fifties on a ship, like many of our great migrants from Austria, and he loves this country and became an Australian citizen. It was a really special day for us as a family. My husband was British and he became an Australian.

This is the story of Australia, but never has this been done in a way that's political. And it is really out of the ordinary, that right on the cusp of an election that citizenship ceremonies are being politicised.

And I'm in a marginal seat out in Western Sydney and I've seen the shameless political stunts that get played when Labor is up against the wall. And we'd hate to think that this is another one of those.

Mark Levy

Yep, well said. Good on you, Melissa. Thanks for calling through and, weighing in on this. It's certainly become a big issue of the day. Thanks so much.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.