There is a growing revolt in Australia against the ubiquity of ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies. New revelations of the staggering cost to taxpayers of pandering to this fake ‘traditional cultural activity’ is only likely to sharpen Australians’ disdain.
Aussie taxpayers have forked out more than $450,000 in the past two years for government departments to host Welcome to Country ceremonies.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency paid $60,342, the Australian Institute of sport racked up $47,000 and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet spent $41,801 for 33 ceremonies.
Freedom of Information requests provided to the Opposition also show the Infrastructure Department spent $35,618 on Welcomes while the Industry, Science and Resource Department allocated $30,896 to the ceremonies.
And that’s just federal agencies in Canberra. State and local governments pay even more for the privilege of having some pasty-faced ‘aunty’ or ‘uncle’ wave some gum leaves around and spout a bunch of nonsense made up in the 1970s.
Opposition government waste reduction spokesman James Stevens said the amount spent was staggering.
“When added to the enormous amounts state and local governments spend on these ceremonies, it’s become a multimillion-dollar industry,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“Welcomes to Country should be genuine and authentic.”
Well, there’s the problem: they’re neither. The whole charade was invented out thin air in the ’70s, to placate a troupe of visiting Māori at yet another taxpayer-funded ‘cultural’ beano.
Still, someone is making an absolute fortune out of the whole scam.
“Spending millions on ‘Welcome’ ceremonies does nothing to address the challenges facing Indigenous Australians […Stevens said]
“This money could be better spent on delivering real solutions to Indigenous communities’ […]
A Finance Department spokesman, which paid $6,740 for just eight events, also said the money spent “demonstrates our commitment to reconciliation”.
In other words, it really is just virtue-signalling. At taxpayers’ expense.
The whole thing is such a farce that even Aboriginal Australians (the real ones, not the ‘box-tickers’ riding the gravy train) are fed up, too.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price last month claimed Welcome to Country ceremonies have become a commercial product rather than an expression of culture.
The Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister told Sky News in December there is an “Aboriginal industry” in Australia.
“The whole Welcome to Country ceremony has just broadened that industry,” she said.
“There are those right around the country, who basically their only role, their only source of income, is 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 land.
The first dominoes are also falling in the lucrative (for the ‘Indigenous culture’ vultures) trade in ‘Welcome to Country’ before sporting events. National Rugby League club Melbourne Storm dumped the nonsense for all but three matches last year, with an ongoing review into whether to keep it at all.
