‘Complete farce’: Australian delegate performs Acknowledgment of Country at COP29 in Azerbaijan

Australia’s delegation to a climate conference in Azerbaijan has been slammed as a “complete farce” over one speaker’s remarks.

Australia’s delegation to the COP29 climate change conference has been labelled a “complete farce” after one speaker opened her remarks with an Indigenous Acknowledgment of Country — for an event in Azerbaijan.

The two-week 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which wraps up on Friday, was held in the tiny former Soviet republic straddling eastern Europe and western Asia.

Despite the fact that the capital Baku is more than 13,000 kilometres from Sydney, that did not stop Dr Clare Anderson from paying respects to Australia’s traditional owners, as is now customary before most corporate, government and sporting events.

Dr Anderson, director of sustainability performance at engineering and professional services firm Worley, was speaking before a nearly empty crowd for the opening panel session at the Australian pavilion in Baku.

Australia’s delegation to the COP29 conference in Baku. Picture: X

“I’m very delighted to be here today,” she said.

“To start, I might … whilst we’re not on Australian lands, I’d still like to start with acknowledging the traditional owners of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.”

A clip of the moment was shared on X by former Australian MP Craig Kelly.

“What a complete farce — here’s a video from the ‘Australian Pavilion’ at the climate wankfest at Baku — funded by Australian taxpayers,” he wrote.

“Imagine, all that coin to pay for constructing an exhibition stand, flying a delegation half way around world, setting up video facilities to record it all — and they get five people to attend.”

He added that “I wonder if this would pass muster if we had an Australian DOGE”, referring to US President-elect Donald Trump’s Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency.

Dr Clare Anderson, director of sustainability performance at Worley. Picture: Supplied

The video sparked bemusement among many viewers.

“Why are Australian government officials doing a welcome to country in Azerbaijan,” Nationals Senator Matt Canavan asked.

“Welcome to Country … in Baku,” said Freelancer chief executive Matt Barrie.

One-time Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who unsuccessfully ran for former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s northern beaches seat of Warringah in 2022, said, “Australia is an outpost. No one cares.”

Several X users labelled it a “joke”.

“Cancel the return flight, the credit cards and disavow. That will save lots of planet and our money,” one wrote.

“We are not a serious country,” another said.

After the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum last year, some commentators have suggested the Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country — now found everywhere from bus announcements and school assemblies to job interviews and pilates classes — should be scaled back.

Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said earlier this year the overuse of the Welcome to Country in Australian public life could actually make people feel unwelcome in their own country.

Ms Price told Sky News Australians should not be “confronted with it at every single opportunity”.

In September, One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson called for ceremonies to be banned, saying Australians were “sick and tired of them”.

“They are sick of being told Australia is not their country, which is what these things effectively do,” she wrote on X.