Dutton says veterans don’t want Welcome to Country

Labor has sought to avoid the issue, after Dutton raised the stakes by calling the ceremonies divisive at the Sunday night leaders’ debate.

Campaign spokesman Jason Clare called for people to “remember where all of this began” as debate continued on Monday. “On Friday, it sort of spawned out of the actions of neo-Nazis interrupting an Anzac Day dawn service,” he said.

“I don’t think any of us want to find ourselves on the same side of this argument as neo-Nazis.”

Extremism experts have warned that far-right agitators are seeking to hijack polarised public debates as they court attention in the federal election.

They have seized on the conservative opposition to Welcome to Country ceremonies that has gained momentum following the Voice referendum. This has been led in parliament by figures including Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the Coalition’s Indigenous affairs spokeswoman, who backed Dutton on Monday.

“We have absolutely overdone Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country, especially when they become politicised sort of statements that are divisive,” she said on Sky News.

But many Indigenous leaders have expressed distress at the heated political dispute. Wurunjerdi elder Aunty Joy Murphy on Monday told the ABC that “my heart’s really broken so badly” after the Welcome to Country she had planned to give at Friday’s Melbourne Storm football game was called off in the aftermath of the Anzac Day incidents.

The Welcome to Country has been performed in modern Australia since the 1970s and springs from ancient Indigenous customs, where tribes gave ceremonial welcomes to other groups as they moved across the country. These days, it is typically given by an Indigenous elder on their ancestral lands.

This is different to an Acknowledgement of Country, which is often given by non-Indigenous Australians at the beginning of speeches and events, or when Qantas flights land at Australian airports.

Australian National University historian Frank Bongornio said the Welcome to Country had been part of Anzac Day for more than a decade. “It’s about the growing recognition of First Nations people in the armed forces all the way back to World War I,” he said.

The national RSL declined to comment but pointed to its website, which suggests the order of any Anzac services include an Acknowledgement of Country or Welcome.

The separate NSW division of the RSL said Acknowledgement of Country was a significant part of all ceremonies.

“Including an Acknowledgement of Country in Anzac Day ceremonies is a respectful and appropriate recognition of the enduring role of Indigenous Australians in our proud military history,” a spokesperson said.

“Importantly, it also recognises the deep connection that traditional custodians have to the lands on which commemorative events are taking place.”

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