DO YOU LIVE IN WATSON?
Our office can provide you with help and advice on a range of Federal Government services. This includes Medicare, Centrelink, Immigration, passports and grant programs. Our office contact is 02 9750 9088.
Suburbs that are completely in the Watson electorate include Ashbury, Belfield, Belmore, Burwood Heights, Campsie, Chullora, Croydon Park, Enfield, Greenacre, Lakemba, Mount Lewis, Punchbowl, Roselands, Strathfield South and Wiley Park.
Suburbs that are partly in the Watson electorate include Ashfield, Bankstown, Beverly Hills, Canterbury, Croydon, Hurlstone Park, Kingsgrove, Lidcombe, Narwee, Riverwood and Summer Hill.
Check the map below to see if you are in the Watson electorate.
WATSON
Watson is one of the most multicultural areas in Australia. I've lived here all my life and been the local member since 2004. I have seen the area grow and change to represent the face of modern multicultural Australia. Half of the people in Watson were born overseas. English is the only language of 30% of people living in Watson. Other languages spoken are Arabic, Greek, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Italian (2021 Watson Census data).
The electorate of Watson includes Lakemba, the site of the Walk for Respect. This was a massive event which turned the tide of the Government's attacks on 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. The campaign began in 2014, and the Walk for Respect was a celebration of 3,000 people in 2017.
The electorate name of Watson came from Australia's third Prime Minister Chris Watson who served 27 April–12 August 1904.
HOW CAN WE help?
IMMIGRATION
Do you need help with immigration, passports, citizenship, visa or travel documents? You can call immigration on 131 881 or visit the website here www.homeaffairs.gov.au. If you have further questions and need help you can call my office on (02) 9750 9088
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
Do you require a JP? Members of my electorate office are authorised to witness and attest documents. A JP will generally be available Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm.
Community contacts
Canterbury Bankstown City Council | (02) 9707 9000
State Member for Bankstown Jihad Dib MP | (02) 9759 5000
State Member for Canterbury Sophie Cotsis MP | (02) 9718 1234
Police (Emergency) | 000
Campsie Police Station (Non-emergency) | (02) 9784 9399
Campsie Service Centre | Centrelink | 13 24 68
Translation services | 131 450
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service | 1800 737 732
Sydney Women's Counselling Centre | (02) 9718 1955
Bankstown Women's Health Centre | (02) 9790 1378
NSW Domestic Violence Line | 1800 65 64 63
Law Access NSW | 1300 888 529
Metro Assist | 9789 3744
NDIS | 1800 800 110
Immigration and Citizenship | 131 881
Passport Office | 131 232
Lifeline | 13 11 14
ENROLLING TO VOTE
To enrol for the first time or get back on the roll, you can enrol online.
Click here for more details: www.aec.gov.au/enrol
You will need to provide evidence of your identity. You can use your driver's licence, Australian passport number or have someone who is enrolled confirm your identity. Please note that the AEC cannot accept any other forms of identification, such as 18+ or Proof of Age cards.
It is compulsory by law for all eligible Australian citizens to enrol and vote in federal elections, by-elections and referendums.
You are eligible to enrol if you:
are an Australian citizen, or eligible British subject,
aged 18 years and over, and
have lived at your address for at least one month.
If you are 16 or 17 you can enrol now so when you turn 18 you'll be able to vote.
Congratulatory Messages
Please fill in the below form to receive a congratulatory message.
Request a congratulatory message
Anniversaries are a very special time in our lives and should be celebrated. The State and Federal Governments in Australia have an arrangement to properly recognise certain anniversaries by way of messages from elected leaders and officials.
If you have an anniversary or birthday milestone coming up please fill in the form.
What are anniversary messages?
Special recognition of significant wedding and birthday milestones. Australians who are eligible for a congratulatory message (see below section for more information) can receive personal congratulations from the their local Federal Member, State Member, Prime Minister, Governor-General or The King.
Who qualifies?
The Prime Minister will send a message of congratulations to people turning 90 years of age or more. The King and Governor-General will send a message on a 100th birthday. On request, the Prime Minister and the Governor-General will write again every year and The King will write again every five years.
The Prime Minister and Governor-General send messages to couples celebrating 50 years of marriage and subsequent wedding anniversaries. The King sends messages to couples celebrating 60 years of marriage and will write every five years after that on request.
Note: Messages from The King can be arranged for couples or individuals who did not receive a message on their 60th wedding anniversary or on their 100th birthday, as the case may be.
How to arrange the message
If you live in the Watson electorate (please see the map above), you can make a request for an anniversary message by filling in the form on this page.
You will need to provide supporting documentation like birth certificates or marriage certificates. If these are not available you can provide a statutory declaration. Statutory declaration forms are available at my office.
Where appropriate, your request to the Prime Minister will be passed on to the Governor-General and The King so you only have to make one application.
To arrange a message from the State Premier you should contact the office of your local state parliamentarian.
When to arrange the message
You can make arrangements for anniversary messages up to two months before the celebration.
You can request a belated message up to one month after the birthday or wedding anniversary has passed.
For eligible occasions, requests received within six months after the occasion will be passed to Government House in Canberra for their consideration for a belated message from The King.
Where will the message be delivered?
Anniversary messages can be delivered directly to the recipient or to a care-of address for surprises.
About TONY BURKE
Tony Burke is the Member for Watson, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for the Arts and Leader of the House of Representatives.
Tony has been a member of the Labor frontbench both in Government and in Opposition since entering Federal Parliament in 2004.
When Tony took over the immigration portfolio in 2013, unauthorised boat arrivals were at an all-time high. The policy changes he oversaw delivered a 90 per cent reduction in the number of people putting their lives at risk on boats. He also ensured that all unaccompanied minors in immigration detention were released.
As Minister for the Arts Tony launched Revive – Australia’s first National Cultural Policy in a decade – reversing ten years of cuts to the arts, properly funding Australia’s cultural institutions and establishing Creative Australia.
Previously as Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Tony introduced 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave, passed the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws to improve Australia’s bargaining system and passed the Closing Loopholes laws to improve wages, conditions and safety for workers.
Previously as Environment Minister in the Gillard Government, Tony was responsible for resolving 100 years of conflict in the Murray-Darling Basin, placing Tasmania’s forests on the World Heritage list and making the second-largest conservation decision in the history of the planet by protecting our oceans.