Pauline Hanson calls for Welcome to Country to be banned: ‘Australians are sick and tired of them’

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has demanded a ban on Welcome to Country rituals in the wake of the Voice to Parliament referendum defeat.

She said she wanted to hold lead vote architect Professor Marcia Langton to her promise made in April that a no vote would put an end to her performances of the ceremony.

“We can only hope that this promise is kept,” Senator Hanson said in a post on

‘They are recited at the start of every parliamentary session, every council meeting and every Zoom meeting of civil servants.

‘We hear them at the end of every domestic flight, you hear the groans in the cabin every time. In fact, they have lost all meaning through their constant repetition.

“Australians – including many Indigenous people – are fed up with them. They are tired of being told that Australia is not their country.”

The Queensland senator was silenced in parliament after he offered to take Greens senator Mahreen Faruqi ‘to the airport’ if she ‘didn’t like Australia’. Senator Hanson later retracted her comments about Senator Faruqi.

Senator Hanson’s planned speech was instead delivered in Parliament by One Nation colleague Malcolm Roberts and published online by Senator Hanson.

“There was some controversy in the Senate which led to my right to speak in the House being temporarily withdrawn by the Labor government, with the support of the Greens,” she posted on social media.

‘This happened following comments I made during a debate in which I criticized the Greens for their apologetic attitude towards Islamic extremist terrorism.

“As a result, I was unable to deliver the speech I had prepared.”

In her planned speech, she denounced Indigenous ceremonies, labeling them a modern invention that had been dismissed as “divisive” by some Aboriginal leaders.

She said the outcome of the referendum should put an end to all these ceremonies, including the Welcome to Country and Recognition of Country ceremonies.

“It was more than a rejection of the vote,” she said. ‘It was a rejection of the entire Uluru statement – ​​all 26 pages of it.

“It was a rejection of a treaty and a telling of the truth – or more accurately, a rewriting of history for financial schemes funded by non-Indigenous taxpayers.

‘It was a rejection of identity politics, grievance politics and the activist cult of victimhood. And first and foremost, it was a rejection of racial division.

“And one of the most racially divisive features of modern discourse in Australia is the welcoming of land ceremonies, along with the recognition of the land.”

Senator Hanson added that the idea of ​​indigenous nations existing before British colonization was a false idea imported from abroad.

“Welcomes and expressions of thanks deny the citizenship and sovereignty that all Australians possess equally,” she said.

“They perpetuate the falsehood that nations existed on this continent before 1788.

‘They didn’t. This is a foreign idea, an activist apparatus imported from Canada that does not reflect the reality of Australian history.

‘For most Aboriginal people it is not even a real ritual before they settle. It was invented in 1976 by Ernie Dingo and Richard Walley.’

She said South Australian Narungga elder and No campaigner Kerry White said the rituals should only be for Indigenous people welcoming other Indigenous people to their lands.

“She said its use by non-Indigenous Australians was just a sign of virtue,” the senator said. “She wasn’t wrong about the virtue signaling, that’s for sure.

“She even said that ‘welcome to country’ was an attack on indigenous culture.

“Another indigenous leader of the ‘no’ campaign, Senator Naminjimpa Price, who recently said welcomes to the country were ‘absolutely divisive.’

Professor Langton – who helped draft the Voice to Parliament proposal – said in April that non-Indigenous Australians “wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye” if the Voice referendum resulted in a No vote.

“How are they ever going to ask an indigenous person, a traditional owner, to be welcomed into the country?” she said.

“How could they ever ask me to speak at their conference?

“If they have the guts to do it, of course the answer will be no.”

Senator Hanson said last month’s vote showed that now was the time to take Professor Langton at her word and that all branches of government should stop the ceremonies.

“It’s time to leave Indigenous rituals to Indigenous Australians,” she said. ‘We call for an end to welcoming and recognizing the country.

“Stop signaling virtues you don’t possess and stop dividing this country by abusing these indigenous rituals.

‘We know that for many, the promise that it would end was the reason why they did not vote in the referendum.

“Australians don’t want them. Let us move forward together as one people, one nation under one flag.”