White privilege rhetoric behind push to end welcome to country

The welcome to country being booed on Anzac Day has renewed the debate about its place in Australia. But there is an easy solution, writes Anthony Dillon.

Many readers would have read or heard the news about the booing of a Welcome to Country at an Anzac Day ceremony in Melbourne.

We are told that the booing was because many Australians are sick of the Welcome to Country practice.

Certainly, a news.com.au poll on Saturday with nearly 50,000 responses supports this claim by telling us what we already knew, which is that many Australians oppose it – by a margin of about two to one.

While a survey like this has some value, I think that too often, commentary and analysis on Aboriginal affairs in the media is overly reactive and lacking any depth.

For example, responses like “I don’t need to be welcomed to my own country” or “the practice needs to be banned” are in my opinion, very shallow.

Before we get into why Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country practices are so contentious, let’s deal with recent Anzac Day controversy very briefly.

Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown delivers the 'Welcome to Country' on April 25, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia.

While I’m not a fan of the practice, I personally would not oppose it at an Anzac Day ceremony. However, while I respect people’s rights to disagree with the practice, booing is both pathetic and degrading.

But beyond those who booed at the ceremony, one reason people are opposing the practice is because it is being overused.

Dr Anthony Dillon

I hear friends make comments like: “At our work, you can’t open a bottle of milk without a Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country.”

Of course, they are joking, but you get the message. More seriously, a major Sydney university was in the news recently because students in some courses had to include an Acknowledgement of Country as part of their assessment. It was gratifying to read recently that the university has now agreed to abandon this requirement.

The second reason for opposition is that sometimes the practice can be used for political messages — it can become a Trojan horse.

The welcoming starts off fine and perhaps even sincere, but ends in telling those gathered, about historical injustices or something similar. This is sure to turn many off. A good Welcome to County, is exactly that, welcoming.

In the other direction, consider former Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney speaking of the “continuing struggle for equality and a long history of dispossession” in a recent Welcome to Country.

Former Australian Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney speaks during a Labor Party rally at Parramatta Town Hall.

There’s a final reason for objection which is more complex but cuts to the heart of the matter.

The popular messages on Aboriginal affairs coming from left-leaning media and some Aboriginal commentators, is that the main cause of problems facing Aboriginal Australians is White Australia.

We are told that racism against Aboriginal Australians is rampant, celebrating Australia Day is disrespectful, Aboriginal Australians possess a culture that non-Aboriginal Australians can’t understand or don’t appreciate, and the impact of colonisation still lingers today.

Further, we hear about white privilege, the need for cultural safety, and the need for decolonisation. All this breeds frustration in many Australians.

It can be difficult to know how to respond to all this propaganda. Voicing opposition to Welcomes to Country and Acknowledgements of Country is a quick and easy way to seem to do it.

So what’s the solution?

Well first of all, booing is not the answer. That’s for immature minds. As many have already suggested, the practices should be reserved for significant events.

Where the line between significant and non-significant is, I don’t know, but at the very least, if there is a gathering of people where there are several speakers, then doing it once at the beginning should suffice. I don’t believe this needs to be mandated and prescribed. Let people work it out for themselves in consultation.

Where the practices are to be done, they should be done in a genuinely welcoming manner. Fortunately, and not surprisingly, there is no shortage of people who can do this and are already doing it.

I honestly believe, that if the advice I have offered here was already practised, there would have been no controversy like we saw this Anzac Day.

These are uncertain times we live in.

As a nation we need to work together, prioritising what is most important to us. Matters regarding Welcome to Country can be easily resolved.

Anthony Dillon is an honorary fellow at Australian Catholic University