1 week Ago By Melissa Meehan
The opposition leader has doubled down on his criticism of Welcome to Country ceremonies, claiming most veterans don't want them held on Anzac Day. Login or signup to continue reading Peter Dutton has placed himself in the centre of the debate surrounding their ceremonies after a small group of neo-Nazis heckled during a dawn service in Melbourne. He described Welcome to Country ceremonies as overused, days after Bunurong-Gunditjmara man Uncle Mark Brown was booed and jeered on Anzac Day.
"There is a sense across the community that it is overdone," Mr Dutton said during the final leaders' debate of the federal election campaign on Sunday night. He repeated the criticism on Monday, adding that he believed Welcome to Country ceremonies should only happen at very significant events. When asked whether he would consider Anzac Day significant enough, he said: "No.
" "Listening to a lot of veterans in the space, Anzac Day is about our veterans," Mr Dutton told reporters from the campaign trail. "I think if you are listening to their sentiment, and we are respectful of that sentiment on Anzac Day, I think the majority view would be that they don't want it on that day." RSL Victoria president Robert Webster previously said the actions of the small group were "completely disrespectful" to the Aboriginal community, veterans and the spirit of Anzac Day.
"In response, the spontaneous applause from the 50,000-strong crowd attending the service drowned out those who disrupted, and showed the respect befitting of the occasion," Dr Webster said. On its website, RSL Australia says it supports the acknowledgement of Country before official services on Anzac Day "in recognition of Indigenous Australians as the first peoples of Australia". Mr Dutton previously said he would not display the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at press conferences if he becomes prime minister, adding the country should be united under the Australian flag.
Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare suggested right-wing extremists were being allowed to lead the debate on Welcome to Country ceremonies. "This all spawned out of actions of neo-Nazis on dawn services last Friday," he said. A Welcome to Country ceremony was cancelled at a Melbourne Storm NRL game on Friday night following the earlier booing incident.
Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin said she was left heartbroken when she was told she no longer needed to perform the ceremony. That decision was later reversed, but she said she was too upset to go on. Aunty Joy, whose father fought in World War I, said on Monday the long-held ceremony had been practised between communities for thousands of years.
"It is a matter of respect," she said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the ceremonies as a mark of respect and said it was up to individual organisations to decide whether to include them at events. "People are entitled to their views, but we have the great privilege of sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture on earth," he said.
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