Fremantle Australia Day row: citizenship ceremonies on 28 January barred

The City of Fremantle will not be allowed to hold citizenship ceremonies on its alternative Australia Day, the federal government has said.

Fremantle bumped Australia Day events by two days, citing Aboriginal cultural sensitivities.

The assistant immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said the commonwealth would not allow the council to hold citizenship ceremonies as part of its planned events on 28 January because it would give an anti-Australia Day message.

The council could hold them on 26 January as normal, or on any other day as long as it was not marketed as an alternative to Australia Day, Hawke said. Otherwise the immigration department would perform the ceremonies.

“Citizenship has got to be apolitical, noncommercial, bipartisan and secular,” Hawke told ABC radio on Monday.

“It’s really important … we’ve got hundreds of councils administering this around the country … that they don’t get the idea they can use citizenship as a political football. We’re very dark on that.”

Hawke said the federal government was taking a firm stance but trying to resolve the matter with the council.

“We’re trying to work this out,” he said. “We’re being reasonable. We don’t want this to escalate into a major political situation and would prefer that they did take up the commonwealth on one of the offers.”

The mayor of Fremantle, Brad Pettitt, confirmed he had received correspondence from the federal government and would comment later on Monday. He said last week he did not expect the council’s decision would cause such a fuss.