The Welcome to Country ceremony at the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance was briefly heckled before audience members drowned out the disruptors. Photo: Shrine of Remembrance Victoria.
The Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader and the Premier of Victoria have condemned the heckling of an Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremony at Friday’s Anzac Day dawn service.
“I strongly condemn the hateful disruption of this morning’s dawn service,” Premier Jacinta Allan said in a statement to the media.
“A neo-Nazi disrupting this day is appalling, it has no place here.
“Anzac Day honours the values our Anzacs lived and died for: courage, loyalty, mateship, and sacrifice. Those who booed in the dark showed they have none of these qualities.”
During the highly partisan time of an election lead-up, Messrs Albanese and Dutton have both condemned the hecklers, with the Prime Minister saying it was “un-Australian” and “disgraceful” and the Opposition Leader calling them a “stain on the national fabric”.
But on stage at the final leaders’ debate, the conversation shifted from the heckling itself to a broader conversation about Welcome to Country ceremonies.
“There is a sense across the community that it [Welcome to Country] is overdone. For the opening of Parliament, fair enough, it’s respectful to do. But for the start of every meeting at work or the start of a football game, I think a lot of Australians think it’s overdone and it cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do. It divides the country …” Mr Dutton said.
Mr Albanese responded by placing the focus back on the heckling itself.
“Peter and I agree, I think most Australians will agree that that was abhorrent and really an act of cowardice on a day in which we celebrate the bravery of the men and women who wear our uniform,” the Prime Minister said.
The debate adjudicator and political editor of 7 News Mark Riley was quick to bring the conversation back to the point of disagreement between the two leaders, stating that Mr Albanese began many of his events with Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Pressed by Mr Dutton on whether the ceremony was overdone, the Prime Minister said it was “Up to people to determine whether they have a Welcome to Country or not”.
Mr Dutton said the ceremony should remain for the opening of Parliament and other “very significant events”, but that the government should focus on “practical reconciliation”.
Indigenous issues and culture war battles have reared their heads occasionally in the leadership contest, with Riley reminding Mr Dutton and viewers that the Opposition Leader pledged to not stand in front of the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags should he be elected.
However, Mr Dutton has reversed some of his older positions on Indigenous issues, such as his apology two years ago for boycotting Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 when he was in Opposition.
