What you said about surf club being charged for welcome to country at events

Furore has erupted after it was revealed a local surf club was being charged a $500 fee to use the beach. HAVE YOUR SAY

Members of the Yamba SLSC. Photo: Facebook.

• Surf club forced to pay for beach
• Our wild native title history

Furore has erupted after it was revealed a local surf club was being charged a $500 fee by an Aboriginal corporation each time they held an event on the beach.

Yamba Surf Club was asked by the Yaegl traditional owners Aboriginal Corporation to pay a $500 “fee for service” for each of its four events - including a nippers carnival - over the 2024-25 lifesaving season.

The corporation said the payment was to conduct ‘welcome to country’ ceremonies at the events.

The demand has outraged some surf club members, with one slamming it as “un-Australian”.

See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>

Yamba SLSC has been slugged $500 per event. Photo: Facebook.

This has to stop

Garry

Simple solution - stop native title, stop welcome to country, treat all Australians equally

Issy

Welcome to country is not a service anyone wants.

Geoff G

Cancel the Welcome to Country ceremonies. They are not necessary and most people do not want them

Henry

This has to stop. We are all Australians.

Sonya

This is out of hand! Nobody owns the beaches or oceans or national parks!

Ian

The world has gone mad. Thanks to the woke

Why am I being welcomed to my own country?

Mathew

Again, I will ask the question of why am I being welcomed to my own country?

Ron

We don’t need welcoming to the country we were born in

John-Arthur

Why do every day Australians need a welcome to country ceremonies. We live here

Rod

Don’t pay the money what are they going to do about it, no welcome to our own country. That’s a win.

The division will grow

Ann

I always thought the Indigenous people wanted to be treated equally, fairly and to be respected. I believe they achieved that some time ago. What has happened? Now all other Australians just want to be treated equally, fairly and to be respected. Do we not deserve those same rights? To those trying to cause division, back off! We are all Australians and we all deserve equality.

Coffee Guy

There is a growing resentment to these ceremonies. No one listens. Not achieving anything.

Dave

The more this happened, the more the division will grow

We didn’t vote for this

DJ

Come on, we voted no last year Get rid of Labor

Censored Pending Cancelled

If LNP promise to scrap this crap they’ll win the next election in a landslide. Thanks Albanese for dividing Australia on race.

Chris

All this does is fuel division between all groups.

Well done Albo. This is all on you and Labor for being the most decisive government in Australian history. You wanted a legacy … and you got it. Just not the legacy you wanted.

Frank

David Crisafulli is doing as he has promised. Cancelling the truth telling debacle. Hopefully the next will be cancelling the WTC. What an absolute farce.

Anne-Maree

You have to be joking, we didn’t vote for this