One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slams ‘Welcome to Country’ tradition

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed Australia’s Welcome to Country tradition, claiming she feels “left out”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed the nation’s Welcome to Country tradition, labelling it an act of “virtue signalling” undertaken by politicians.

Mrs Hanson, who has a long history of prying open sensitive issues, said she was “very tired” of being “left out” of the short speech that has become a custom at major events across the nation since Ernie Dingo and Richard Walley first modern Welcome to Country in 1976.

“It is common for politicians to be booed at events but some Australians were shocked that Anthony Albanese would get such a hostile reaction while trying to deliver a so-called ‘Welcome to Country’,” she wrote on her official Facebook page.

“I don’t know about you but I am very tired of being left out of the ‘welcome’ to my own country.”

Senator Pauline Hanson says she feels ‘left out’ of the Welcome to Country.

The long-time senator said the tradition served mainly to boost the egos of politicians and was another example of “left wing pandering” making its way into everyday life.

“Some of you might not realise but this ‘welcome to country’ isn’t some ancient tradition. It is a modern invention,” Hanson continued.

“Just one of the many overused methods of left-wing virtue signalling that shoehorns politics and pandering into everyday life.

“We shouldn't be elevating one group above others. We are all Australians equally sharing our country together. That's why you won't ever hear me welcoming people to their own country.”

The One Nation figurehead, who has also secured LNP defector George Christensen for an unlikely Senate tilt, announced last week she would have a candidate in all 151 lower house seats at the May 21 poll.

Hanson slammed the ‘modern tradition’, describing it as more “left wing pandering” making its way into everyday life.

She also rolled out a number of familiar talking points, including a broadside against the forecast increase in Australia’s migrant intake to 235,000 by 2025.

Shortly before introducing Muthuraj ‘Raj’ Guruswamy as number two on the Queensland senate ticket, she declared opening the country to more migrants a year would be a slap in the face to people who have lost their jobs because of jab mandates.

Hanson has long held an anti-immigration stance, telling parliament in her maiden speech in 1996 that the nation was in danger of being “swamped by Asians.”

The Senator also threw her support behind Queensland’s coal industry and the construction of new coal-fired power plants “so that we can bring more money into the country” while bemoaning the fact that Qatar was making more money of is gas fields than Australia was.

“We are a resource rich country, yet we fail to actually impact on that ... when we are the largest exporter of LNG gas,” she said. “Other countries around the world, like Norway, have made a lot of money out of their resources and we’re just giving it way to multinationals.”

Originally published as One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slams ‘Welcome to Country’ tradition