Pauline Hanson has called on other political leaders and ordinary Australians to follow her lead and reject the Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Senator Hanson’s comments follow fresh controversy over the ceremonies that arose following the speech made by Sydney Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council member Brendan Kerin before an AFL semi-final last weekend.
Before the match, Mr Kerin said that Indigenous people have been celebrating the Welcome to Country festival for 250,000 years, while there is no evidence that Aboriginal people were on the continent that long ago. He said that such ceremonies were not “invented to meet the needs of white people”.
The One Nation leader spoke in the Senate on Tuesday and said Krein’s speech had left football fans “with questions”.
“If (Welcome to Country ceremonies) are not meant for white people, why are white people continually subjected to them?” she asked.
‘These welcomes are based on the lie that Australia is not our home.
‘A lot of people tell me they’re over it now.’
Senator Hanson said Welcome to Countries was “divisive” and had been “allowed to fester for too long”. He called for its use at virtually all public events to be stopped.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has delivered a fiery speech in parliament calling on public leaders and ordinary Australians to follow her example and turn their backs on Welcome to Country ceremonies.
She had some particularly sharp comments about the practices in schools.
“Welcome to Country is nothing more than racial antagonism disguised as racial reconciliation, imposed on children before they even go to school and are in school,” she said.
“Putting their hands on the ground is just indoctrination.”
Senator Hanson argued that the ceremony implied that there were no non-Indigenous people living in Australia.
“We have no need or desire to be welcomed into our own home,” she said.
‘We have shed blood, sweat and tears to build and defend our home.
We have as much right to live in our home as anyone else.
Brendan Kerin (pictured), a cultural educator with the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council in Sydney, divided fans with a very clear speech on Welcome to the Country on Saturday night
‘If you hand my house over to someone else, I’ll have nothing left to fight for.
“If you give Australia away, I will not defend it and neither will my children.”
Ms Hanson said being an Indigenous elder does not “ensure respect” for someone.
“Respect should be earned, not given away based on racial privilege,” she said.
Being Aboriginal does not make someone exceptional.
‘Being Australian makes you exceptional.’
She called on other public figures to turn their backs on the Welcome to Land rituals.
“It is a disgrace that so many other political leaders are too cowardly to follow the same principle, in their desperate attempts not to lose votes to the radical left,” she said.
“I strongly encourage other Australians to do the same. Don’t let yourselves be walked over any longer and stand up for your home.”