What is the Australian Citizenship Pledge?

What is the Australian Citizenship Pledge?

The pledge is a short promise you say aloud at your citizenship ceremony. Citizenship only starts once you have said it.

It is also a study topic, because Our Common Bond ties each part of the booklet back to it. What matters is that you understand what the promises mean.

When do you make the pledge?

At the ceremony, after the speeches. A presiding officer asks you to repeat the pledge aloud, and the other new citizens do the same. You become a citizen only once you have made it.

If you cannot attend because of a permanent or enduring incapacity, or you are a child under 16, you do not need to make it. The citizenship ceremony article covers the day in more detail.

What do you promise?

The pledge has a short list of promises. Here is each one in plain words.

Loyalty to Australia and its people. You commit yourself to this country and to the people who live in it. The booklet says Australian citizens may also hold citizenship of another country if that country's laws allow it. But inside Australia, you must follow Australian law at all times.

To share its democratic beliefs. You agree with the ideas that Australia's government is built on. Those include parliamentary democracy, the Rule of Law, living peacefully and respect for every person. Part 2 of the booklet lists them.

To respect its rights and liberties. You respect freedoms such as speech, association and religion, for yourself and for other people. Your freedom stops where the law, or another person's freedom, begins.

To uphold and obey its laws. You follow the law, and you support it. This is why Part 3 of the booklet explains how laws are made and enforced. Not knowing a law is no excuse, says the booklet.

What about "under God"?

The pledge can begin with the words "under God". They are your choice. The booklet says a person may choose whether or not to use them, and the ceremony page says the version is yours to pick.

How the pledge links to the test

Parts 1 to 3 of the booklet open by pointing to the pledge. Part 1 links it to loyalty to Australia and its people, Part 2 to democratic beliefs, rights and liberties, and Part 3 to obeying the law. Part 4 covers the values behind all of it.

That gives you a way to remember the parts. Four promises, and they point you to Parts 1 to 3, with Part 4 behind them. If you forget the content of a part, think of the promise, and ask what it would mean in daily life.

How to remember it

Keep the four promises in this order: loyalty, beliefs, rights and liberties, laws. Say each in your own words. Then link each to a daily example. For laws, think of stopping at a red light even when the road is empty.

When you study, use your own list of the four promises and test yourself on it.

Next, read about Australia's democratic beliefs, or test yourself with the free practice test. The pledge is also covered in the Part 2 page.

Check yourself

• Can you say the four promises in your own words?
• Which part of the booklet matches each promise?
• What do you choose about "under God", and where do you find that choice written?