Yippee, I'm an Aussie at last
Carenda Jenkin
01Jul08
It’s been a long time coming but US-born Pamela Anderson is soon to be an Australian citizen. Picture: HANNAH MILLERICK
AN ALICE Springs grandmother who fought a tough seven-year battle against immigration authorities, is finally becoming an Australian citizen.
US-born Pamela Anderson, 59, has lived in Alice Springs for 22 years but was told in 2001 that her visa status had changed and she would have to leave Australia.
Her visa was cancelled a few months after she and her husband Bruce, an American working at Pine Gap, were divorced.
Ms Anderson said it was the Alice Springs community spirit that helped her fight to stay in the town she loves.
She blitzed the citizenship test in seven minutes flat in Darwin recently.
Ms Anderson said: ``It's about bloody time mate. I cannot wait to get that piece of paper that says `Pamela Anderson, Australian citizen'. I am at home now.''
Ms Anderson endured a tough 35 months where she was broke and unable to work. A phone call from the Department of Immigration is still vivid in her mind.
The mother-of-three said: ``I was not going to roll over and take it. But it was the support of the people of Alice Springs that helped me stay here.
``The letters and articles printed in the Centralian Advocate and those who signed a petition all those years ago - I cannot thank you enough. Without you I would not be here to get my citizenship.''
Ms Anderson's persistence paid off when former Federal Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said in 2005 that she could see no problem with Pamela staying in Australia.
Ms Vanstone passed her case on to the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs and Pamela received a letter saying she had been granted permanent residency.
Amid Ms Anderson's turmoil, she even offered her sick friend one of her kidneys in 2003.
She shrugged off her act of kindness for her friend Helen Boodnikoff who suffered from kidney disease.
Mr Anderson will receive her citizenship certificate in September.
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