‘It’s a rort’: Sam Newman doubles down on call to boo Welcome to Country in fiery interview
Sam Newman has doubled down on his comments against the Welcome to Country in a fiery interview after being asked “are you a racist?”
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Sam Newman has doubled down on his comments against the Welcome to Country in a fiery interview, taking aim at AFL legend Adam Goodes and branding the common ceremonies a “hoax”.
The AFL personality stirred up controversy on this week after making comments on his podcast, You Cannot Be Serious, encouraging Aussies to boo or “slow hand clap” during the Welcome to Country, particularly at the upcoming AFL Grand Final at the MCG.
Appearing on 3AW radio on Thursday, Newman was asked by host Tony Jones whether his suggestion was “inciting violence”.
“What an extraordinary question,” Newman said.
“The public have had a gutful of people telling us how to live our lives, particularly footballing organisations. We like to go to the football and watch the game without being told to vote for the gay marriage proposal … without being told to vote for the Voice. Why do they get involved? It is an absolute hoax, it’s a rort, the Welcome to Country. Why do we have to be welcomed to the country we live in? Why is that? It is just a mark of division. The people who welcome you to country get a nice stipend out of it. Why do they charge? It’s just a rort.”
But Jones accused Newman of taking the conversation to a “new low” with the “irresponsible” suggestion.
“My statement on the podcast was a provocative suggestion that people push back on this nonsense,” Newman said. “It’s cringe-worthy to have to watch.”
He reiterated his view that the booing of Goodes in 2015, which led to the premature end of the AFL star’s playing career, was not motivated by racism and suggested no Indigenous player had ever been booed because of their race.
“Adam Goodes was booed because he pretended to throw a spear at the Carlton cheer squad after the Swans were beating them by 10 goals at halftime and wondered why people … people get booed on the football field, not because of their skin colour, but because of things they do,” Newman said.
“I know that, everyone knows that. Then the AFL waded into this and said, ‘Please don’t boo Adam Goodes.’ That’s like red rag to a bull.”
Jones asked Newman bluntly, “Are you a racist?”
Newman stuttered over his words before demanding Jones explain “what you think a racist is besides saying me”.
“Who have I vilified?” he said.
“I don’t think you know what racism is. Racism is about hate primarily and it’s if you defile, decry or degrade someone, think you’re superior than them or try to dominate them. It’s the most overworked word in the English lexicon at the minute … you tell me why anything I’ve said and what I’ve done is anything to do racism.”
Newman again maintained that his podcast comments were a “provocative, tongue in cheek request”, but when pressed by Jones he insisted he would boo the Welcome to Country if he attended the Grand Final.
“I’m not retreating from anything,” he said.
‘Stolen land’
The radio interview came just after Lidia Thorpe blasted Newman as a “racist” for the suggestion.
“We all are on stolen land, there has never been a treaty, and a Welcome to Country is a way to bring people along on an understanding of the country that you are all living on,” the independent Senator told Nine’s Today on Thursday.
“It’s about peace and the whole message behind a Welcome to Country is about respect and bringing people together. And I think Sam Newman is — you know, he is not a respectful man at the best of times so he needs to educate himself and not be so racist all the time.”
Host Karl Stefanovic said he was playing “devil’s advocate” by pointing out that there was a “school of thought out there — and it’s not from me, let me assure you — that maybe there are too many of these ceremonies, that maybe they lose their effectiveness if there are too many of them”.
“How do you counter that?” he said.
Ms Thorpe replied that it was “up to the traditional owners themselves and the event”.
“I think that it’s important for people to understand that the land that they’re on and the stories behind that,” she said.
“There’s a lot of beautiful stories that go with Welcomes and people learn from that and people have a deeper understanding on how to protect country. I don’t think that there’s too many. I think that the stories that are told are important for this country to be able to mature and come together.”
Podcast controversy
In his viral podcast comments, Newman, a staunch opponent of the Yes campaign, argued that the ceremony is being used for political purposes and claims that it is a push for “reparations and financial power”.
He criticised the AFL for promoting what he perceives as “virtuous, patronising nonsense” and accused the league of dividing the country.
“If we are at all serious about the Welcome to Country and the nonsense that has suddenly taken over in the last 20 years from a completely harmless introduction by Ernie Dingo some years ago and people have latched onto it,” he said.
“What about this, next time you go to a public event like the Grand Final or a football game or any public event in an auditorium and they trot out the Welcome to Country, start booing … or slow hand clapping.”
Newman also mentioned that he believes many First Nations Australians share his views on the ceremony.
“Of course it’s being rude, and so who is forcing this nonsense onto us?” he continued.
“Who is telling us that we should be welcomed to [the] country that we live in, that we try and cohabitate, cohabit with all the people that have come here – particularly the Indigenous people.
“There’s so many people who say it and I keep saying it’s just a push for reparations and financial power. It is, and I’m saying, the next time you go to a football game, a final, and they trot this nonsense out just start booing and that’ll stop [it].
“The AFL should be absolutely horse whipped for whipping people into a frenzy about it. Patronising their whiteness by thinking they can virtuously cast off all their sins on us.
“Honestly and truly, it’s got to stop because this has divided the country more than anything. We want to be one group of people living together and respecting one another, Don. Start booing or slow hand clapping or something.”
It’s is not the first time Newman has criticised the AFL’s recognition of First Nations people. The 77-year-old previously took aim at a eulogy for Indigenous icon Uncle Jack Charles and the AFL’s approach to acknowledging traditional landowners.
He specifically criticised having two Welcome to Country speeches before AFL matches and deemed them “propaganda chats”.
“We had a man with a beard who came out and told us … about where the boundaries of all the various tribes and things go. Just an absolute propaganda chat about nothing,” he said.
“And then, if that wasn’t enough … then the CEO’s brother gave us Welcome to Country.”
The knives were out for Newman in July after he claimed the Voice was purely “brainwashing”, labelling it “abhorrent” and “absolutely cringe-worthy”.
“Welcome to Country – what country? Our country? It just goes on and on,” he said on his weekly show with co-host Don Scott.
“You give them an inch and it just keeps going and going … If you vote for the Voice, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Australians will go to the polls on October 14 to vote in a referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
After weeks of traditional polls showing support for the Indigenous advisory body to Parliament going from bad to worse, news.com.au’s Great Aussie Debate survey of more than 50,000 respondents has revealed the picture is even bleaker still.
Participants answered 50 questions in July, revealing their opinions on everything from work, politics and dating, to using your phone on the loo and wearing shorts in the office. Their answers have resulted in a snapshot of how the average Aussie thinks, feels and lives in 2023, with some results more surprising than others.
Fewer than one in four people who chose to respond to the survey – which includes a host of other issues and was not specifically or explicitly about the Voice – said they supported a Voice to Parliament. Just 23 per cent.
The two strongest states – NSW and Victoria – recorded just 25 per cent and even in the dripping-wet woke ACT just 28 per cent supported it.
And tellingly the only age demographic in which support for the Voice was strongest out of the options available was 18-29 with 34 per cent in favour, which even by this former arts student’s reckoning is a fair way below 50 per cent.
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Originally published as ‘It’s a rort’: Sam Newman doubles down on call to boo Welcome to Country in fiery interview
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