Tony Jones outlines ‘the problem the AFL MUST address’ as Aussie broadcaster wades into Welcome to Country ceremony that has sparked outrage
- Tony Jones says AFL must address Welcome to Country controversy
- The ceremony before Saturday night’s match caused outrage
- Jones said the Welcome did the opposite of uniting the nation
The AFL has a major problem to solve after the Welcome to Country ceremony caused outrage in Sydney, according to Tony Jones.
Brendan Kerin, a cultural educator with the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council in Sydney, spoke ahead of Saturday night’s match between the GWS Giants and the Brisbane Lions, saying such ceremonies were “not for white people”.
Some fans criticized the frequency of the welcomes, which Mr. Kerin addressed in his speech.
“I am here tonight to perform the Welcome to Country ceremony… Welcome to Country is not welcome to Australia,” Mr Kerin said.
‘Within Australia we have a lot of Aboriginal lands and we call our lands “country”. So it’s always a welcome to the lands where you’ve come together.
“Welcome to the Country” is not a ceremony that we created specifically for white people.
“It’s a ceremony that we’ve been performing for over 250,000 years before Christ. BC stands for Before Cook.”
The speech caused hilarity in the stands, with well-known footballers such as Tony Shaw afterwards calling the AFL ‘a weak politically correct organisation’.
Tony Jones says there is a ‘problem the AFL needs to address’ amid Welcome to Country row
The ceremony led by Brendan Kerin on Saturday divided opinion in Australia
Jones believes the ceremony should unite the country, but Saturday’s did the opposite
And Nine presenter Jones believes the AFL needs to take tougher action to prevent Welcome to County ceremonies from becoming “personal agendas”.
“I feel like there was a bit of an outcry after the Welcome to Country match during the AFL semi-final in Sydney on Saturday night,” he said on 3AW Melbourne.
‘Whether you agree with Welcome to Country or not, I think football fans should show a fair amount of respect. But there is a problem. There is a problem and the AFL needs to address it.
‘This is a commemoration at Saturday night’s Welcome to Country… there was laughter and I’ll tell you why: because these Welcomes have no personal agendas and shouldn’t have any.
“They really shouldn’t be there to make political statements and I’m not sure the AFL checks the scripts. Maybe they do now because those comments didn’t go down well with some people in the audience.
“I think on that basis alone it’s counterproductive. I mean, if this is all about uniting Australia, then I think it’s divisive when we see or hear these kinds of welcomes.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson waded into the saga with a scathing attack on social media.
“As I have said before, the performances of Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country are among the most racially divisive aspects of modern discourse in Australia,” she wrote on X.
‘Australians are fed up with it. They are fed up with being told that Australia is not their country, which is what these things are.
‘Welcomes and recognitions deny the citizenship and sovereignty that all Australians have equally. This must end.’