By Faith Macale
A thousand Melton residents have become Australian citziens.
Melton council held three citizenship ceremonies across the long weekend, including on Australia Day.
Melton mayor Steve Abboushi said Australia Day is a time to celebrate the people who make the country that we are blessed to call home so special.
“It’s great to see so many conferees being sworn in this year in the City of Melton and reflects the amazing diversity of our wonderful city.”
New citizen Rozanna Nicdao, who is from the Philippines, said she’s ecstatic now that she’s an Australian citizen.
“Now that I’m an Australian citizen, I think I’ll have more opportunities, and then travel around the world,” she said. “I’m really excited to have the blue passport.”
Ms Nicdao first came to Australia in 2018 and said that it has been a journey to finally be a citizen.
Her partner, John Lheynary Artillero said he was really happy for Ms Nicdao, and intends to become an Australian citizen too in the near future.
Meanwhile, Samoan-Ghanaian family, Gloria, and Issah Zakari, and their 15-year-old daughter, Lorisha, can now call themselves proud Australians.
“We’ve been here for over 10 years, so we’re very happy and excited,” Gloria said.
“It wasn’t easy, we went through the process of permanent residency before the laws changed.
Issah said he’s excited to finally be an Australian citizen.
“I’m free to do what I want to do,” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities for me now.”
The Zakari family said anyone wanting to become an Australian citizen should just take the chance.
