The Altona Meadows resident, with his wife Doris and their 13-year-old son, Leian, yesterday became one of Australia's newest citizens.

Not that Mr Sison has much time to watch TV. He works two jobs: at an East Melbourne hospital during the day and a factory in Sunshine at night.

He is working towards building a new family home in Wyndham.

Despite sleeping just four hours a night, Mr Sison said life in Australia offered more opportunities than his country of birth.

"Here, what the well-to-do families are eating, you can eat also, even though you are very ordinary. Ordinary workers there can't buy a car. Here, ordinary workers can buy a car.

"That kind of TV, only people from the rich families can have that kind of TV. Only in your dreams can you own that in the Philippines.

"The life here is much better than what we have in the Philippines."

A member of the local Queen of Peace parish - headed by a Filipino priest - Mr Sison said the only thing he longed for was a greater sense of community. "In the Philippines, all your neighbours you know. Here, I don't know my own neighbour. That's the only thing that is kind of sad. But everything is all right, no worries."

Ninety residents were naturalised at the Hobsons Bay Australia Day citizenship ceremony in Williamstown.

The new citizens hailed from Albania, Bangladesh, Burma, China, Colombia, Croatia, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Sudan, Thailand, the UK and Vietnam.