Annastacia Palaszczuk says reports Brisbane may be renamed to Indigenous equivalent ‘absolute nonsense’

Annastacia Palaszczuk has hit out at claims she is planning to change the name of Brisbane to its Indigenous equivalent, following Fraser Island.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has rubbished claims that she is planning to change the name of Brisbane to its traditional equivalent, “Meanjin”, before the 2032 Olympics.

The Queensland Premier on Wednesday flatly denied the report from 4BC radio, which sparked a furious response from One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson and former Queensland Senator Amanda Stoker.

“No, that is absolute nonsense,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters.

4BC radio host and veteran journalist Peter Gleeson claimed on Tuesday that “my sources are telling me that the Palaszczuk government is working behind the scenes” on the change, adding there were “also suggestions that streets such as George Street, Queen Street, Anne Street, Edward Street might be renamed, and we may even see the statue of George V outside City Hall removed”.

“Sort of like stripping the colonisation from our major landmarks,” he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with the Butchulla people. Picture: Liam Kidston

It comes after the Queensland government earlier this month officially changed the name of Fraser Island, a world-heritage listed tourist destination 250 kilometres from Brisbane, to “K’gari” — the name “used by traditional owners for more than 60,000 years”.

“I have the honour to now formally announce the reinstatement of the name K’gari,” Ms Palaszczuk said at the ceremony.

“It always has been and as of today it always will be. We arrive here only because of the years of advocacy by the Butchulla people. What we do here today is not a gift for a government to bestow, it was something long since owed. We have to stop doing things to our people, and do more with them. Today is an example of that great partnership.”

She added, “Our generation has been given the opportunity to begin to put the centuries of wrong right. It’s about acknowledging the wrongs of the past in order to build a better, brighter future.”

Ms Palaszczuk said that “while steps like this can’t change the wrongs of the past, it goes a long way to building a future where all Queenslanders value, trust, and respect each other”.

“This always was and always will be Butchulla country,” she said.

Fraser Island was named by white settlers in 1847 after captain James Fraser and his wife Eliza Fraser were shipwrecked on a nearby reef and landed ashore.

Riverfront houses in the inner city Brisbane suburb of New Farm. Picture: Brendan Radke

Gayle Minniecon, chair of the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, said that it was “through disrespect to the Butchulla people” that the name K’gari was “taken away”.

“This change completes the picture for the Butchulla people and K’gari, by recognising and honouring their traditions, culture, and continued connection to their land,” she said.

“She has always been K’gari to the Butchulla people.”

Speaking at a planning roadshow last June, Brisbane Olympics Organising Committee president Andrew Liveris said that the 2032 Games could be “a showcase, a lighthouse, to really lift the conversation to incorporate the magnificent culture of the First Nations people”.

“We are ready, I think, as a country,” he told the gathering.

“I think it is time for that, and I would love to make the Olympics one of the ‘work streams’ the nation has to integrate Aboriginal and Indigenous First Nations culture into our program.”

Senator Hanson on Wednesday was asked about the 4BC report of a possible Brisbane name change, describing the idea as “insane” and “ridiculous”.

Ms Palaszczuk says the claims are ‘absolute nonsense’. Picture: Liam Kidston

“How insane is this, to actually want to change the name of Brisbane, that’s been called Brisbane for what, 150 years plus,” she told Sky News.

“And generations have grown up under Brisbane. All our birth certificates, marriage certificates, where were we born? Brisbane, Australia. All our tourism — people overseas know it as Brisbane. And we’re going to change it to a name that — I can’t even remember what you said, within matter of a few seconds — I can’t remember. And I have no intentions of actually wanting to remember. So the fact is, to me it will be Brisbane.”

Brisbane, founded in 1824 as the Moreton Bay penal settlement, is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the sixth Governor of NSW from 1821 to 1825.

Parts of the area on which the city is built are referred to as Meanjin by the Turrbal people.

Sky News host Stoker said there was “very little to be achieved” by renaming things their Indigenous equivalents.

“We should all respect and treat as our equals the people in this country who have Indigenous roots,” Ms Stoker said.

“But that doesn’t mean we need to rewrite history. It doesn’t mean we need to change the name of everything. And it doesn’t mean we need to carry a black armband about everything in our past.”

Stoker, the former Assistant Attorney-General who was responsible for native title claims in her portfolio, said reconciliation should be about “walking forward together” and doing “practical things” that actually “make a difference” for people.

“And we need to really lay off the virtue signalling,” she said.

It comes as public support for the Voice to parliament referendum appears to be flagging.

The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian on Monday, suggested just 43 per cent were in favour of the Voice, 47 per cent opposed and 10 per cent remained undecided.

It is the first lead the ‘no’ campaign has held in the Newspoll.