Staggering amount taxpayers have spent on Welcome to Country ceremonies – and why there’s nothing you can do about it
Australian taxpayers have spent more than $450,000 on government services to organize Welcome to Country ceremonies over the past two years.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency paid $60,342, the Australian Institute of Sport earned $47,000 and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet spent $41,801 on 33 ceremonies.
Freedom of Information requests to the opposition also show that the Ministry of Infrastructure spent $35,618 on welcomes, while the Ministry of Industry, Science and Resources allocated $30,896 on the ceremonies.
Opposition Waste Reduction Government spokesman James Stevens said the amount spent was huge.
“When you add that to the enormous amounts of money that state and local governments spend on these ceremonies, it has become a multi-million dollar industry,” he told the newspaper. Daily Telegraph.
‘Welcomes to Country must be sincere and authentic.
“Spending millions on welcome ceremonies does nothing to address the challenges Indigenous Australians face.
“This money would be better spent delivering real solutions to Indigenous communities.”
Australian taxpayers have spent more than $450,000 on government services to host Welcome to Country ceremonies over the past two years (stock image)
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister and Cabinet defended the amount of money spent on the ceremonies.
She said the spending was “in line with our reconciliation action plan” with plans introduced in 2015 under a coalition government.
“This has been a tradition for years,” she says.
‘All procurement is conducted in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules to deliver value for money.’
A Treasury spokesperson, which paid $6,740 for just eight events, also said the money spent “demonstrates our commitment to reconciliation.”
“Inviting a Traditional Custodian to deliver a welcome to country at important corporate events builds our connection with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” he said.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claimed last month that the Welcome to Country ceremonies have become a commercial product rather than an expression of culture.
The Minister for Shadow Indigenous Australians told Sky News in December that there is an ‘Aboriginal industry’ in Australia.
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister and Cabinet defended the amount of money spent on the ceremonies (stock image)
“The whole Welcome to Country ceremony just broadened that industry,” she said.
“There are people across the country whose only role, their only source of income, is essentially delivering Welcome to Country.”
Late last year, the Juru people of the Burdekin in north Queensland voted to ban Welcome to Country ceremonies on their ancestral lands.
Juru spokesperson Randall Ross told Melbourne radio station 4BC that “the elders have had enough” of the commercialization of the traditional ceremony.
Mr Ross told presenter Bill McDonald that some of those performing Welcome to Country were not even connected to the Burdekin area in any meaningful way.
“Our Welcome to Countries is not only overused, but also used for the wrong purpose,” he said.
“We still have people who are not connected to the country performing the ceremonies because they have been identified as preferred suppliers by governments and other agencies.
“It’s an insult to many of our traditional owners.”