WHAT WAS CLAIMED
3000 out of 12,500 new Australian citizens are people from Gaza.
OUR VERDICT
False. Only 23 Palestinians are among the group of new citizens, and no one who arrived from Gaza after October 2023 has been granted citizenship.
AAP FACTCHECK - No Palestinians who fled Gaza since the outbreak of war have been granted Australian citizenship, and only 23 Palestinians are becoming citizens in the latest ceremonies, not 3000 as claimed online.
It follows media reports that the home affairs department planned to grant 12,852 people citizenship in 25 ceremonies held across Australia between February 17 and March 4. The false claim appears in a social media post which also suggests new citizens would become Labor voters.
"12,500 new Citizens, 3000 of those the UNVETTED from Gaza, But the ALP have secured their votes for Western Sydney," the post says.
The post includes a related cartoon originally published in the Australian newspaper depicting home affairs minister Tony Burke. However, the cartoon does not make the claim.
Mr Burke attended ceremonies held in Sydney where 4511 new citizens were honoured, according to figures provided to AAP FactCheck by the department of home affairs.
Coalition politicians and some local mayors suggested the ceremonies are being conducted on an "industrial scale" and are being "fast-tracked" ahead of a federal election that's due before May 17.
Mr Burke said they were being held to address a "huge backlog", and that they had been "processed ages ago" and were "legally qualified to become citizens".
The home affairs department provided AAP FactCheck a list of the nationalities of applicants involved in the 25 ceremonies.
It shows India (2,365 people), New Zealand (1,929), the UK (853), the Philippines (581), China (556) and Nepal (514) are the largest cohorts.
Only 23 Palestinians are in this group.
Nobody who fled Gaza since October 2023 is eligible for citizenship in Australia.
Citizenship applicants must be living in Australia on a valid visa for four years, preventing anyone who arrived in Australia more recently from being eligible.
The department also confirmed that no Palestinian visa holders who arrived since the October 7, 2023, attacks had been provided citizenship, in a February 24 Senate estimates hearing (page 82).
Mary Anne Kenny, an immigration law expert at Murdoch University, confirmed that only permanent residents are eligible.
"Citizenship requires you to live here for four years and the 12 months prior to that you have to be on a permanent visa.
"There is no provision for fast-tracking this particular group," she said. The government has granted 3,808 visas to Palestinians from October 7, 2023 to January 31, 2025, it was confirmed in Senate estimates (p82), though not all are currently in Australia.
The majority are temporary visitor visas, with the remainder approved for family visas, resident return visas, skilled migration visas, student visas and other visa types.
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