Welcome to Country ceremonies are a ‘political statement’ more than a cultural gesture, former prime minister Tony Abbott has said, and the ‘wonderful’ British settlement of the Australian continent should instead be celebrated.
Mr Abbott said the ceremonies had been forced onto Australians, as a fresh debate erupts over their appropriate use following the booing of such a welcome during a Dawn Service on Anzac Day.
‘The ceremonies have become an exercise in virtue signaling, it’s become a badge of political correctness, it’s become a political statement,’ he told Ben Fordham on 2GB on Tuesday morning.
‘Wearing masks became a political statement during the pandemic. If you weren’t an enthusiast for masks, you weren’t taking the pandemic seriously enough.
‘(The ceremonies have) become something that is forced on people as a way of trying to persuade them that the fundamental Australian project is illegitimate because it was based on this act of injustice, the original dispossession of the Indigenous people.’
Mr Abbott claimed the ‘fundamental problem’ with the ceremonies was that they elevated one group’s contribution to a multicultural Australia over all others.
‘What happened on January 26, 1788, was wonderful,’ he added, referring to the date of the First Fleet’s arrival at Sydney Harbour and proclamation of the land as a British colony.
‘It was the beginning of the great country that we know as Australia, it was the eruption of the modern onto an ancient continent. It’s something to be celebrated.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said January 26, 1788, was a ‘wonderful’ day in history
‘What happened on January 26, 1788, was that the rule of law, notions of freedom, notions of equality, came to a country that previously didn’t have anything like the same thing.
‘Every Australian, including Indigenous Australians, have benefited from that and, sure, the history hasn’t been perfect, no one’s history is, but on balance it’s something every Australian should be immensely proud of.’
Turning to this Saturday’s federal election, the former Liberal leader said Labor does not deserve re-election, even if history indicates that voters rarely throw out a government after one term.
He said Labor voters would be ‘rewarding failure’ and accused Anthony Albanese’s government of ‘economic vandalism’.
‘Its emissions obsessions put power prices through the roof. Its spending addiction has kept interest rates higher for longer, and its union loyalties are making it harder and harder to manage businesses,’ Mr Abbott said.
‘This is why Australia desperately needs a change of government.’
The booing incident at the ANZAC Day dawn service was addressed by both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during their leaders’ debate on Sunday.
‘These things are overdone,’ Mr Abbott said of Welcome to Country ceremonies
‘For the opening of Parliament, fair enough, it is respectful to do. But for the start of every meeting at work, or the start of a football game … a lot of Australians think it is overdone,’ Mr Dutton said of the ceremonies at the time.
‘It cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do, it divides the country, not dissimilar to what the Prime Minister did with the Voice.’
Mr Albanese was asked directly if he thought Welcome to Countries were ‘overdone’.
‘It is up to people to determine whether they have a Welcome to Country or not. But from my perspective, for major events, it is of course a sign of respect,’ he responded.
