Enough of being welcomed to our own country

I fully support Jacinta Price’s call to end the divisive and racist welcome to country ceremonies (“Cut welcome to country: Price”, 14/8). They are not only fake, with no historical origins, but are divisive, telling the rest of us we are not welcome in our own country, a country created by millions like us, past and present, most of whom have never mistreated any Aboriginal people and have happily contributed part of our taxes to close the gap.

Even well-supported goodwill has its limits, and the Yes campaign with its guilt and grievance and total failure to acknowledge all that is good about Australia today is stretching those limits. Some genuine truth-telling would seem to be in order.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

I agree with the comments by Jacinta Price and Tony Abbott regarding welcome to country introductions. I would like to suggest the following welcome to country would indeed be far more welcoming and inclusive:

We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the early settlers who developed the nation, adding government, industry and social services. We acknowledge the Anzacs who paid the ultimate price to defend this land and ensure our freedoms. We acknowledge the immigrants who enrich our culture. Above all, we acknowledge God, the creator and sustainer of our land, who made us all equal.

Rhonda Miller, East Lindfield, NSW

How right is Jacinta Price to call for a curb on the overuse of the welcome to country mantra? Most people are too polite or not prepared to face the social media tsunami of bile to criticise woke or progressive virtue-signalling. More and more people will confess privately that they are “over it” or “I don’t need to be welcomed to my own country”.

Bruce Collison, Banks, ACT

Three cheers for Jacinta Price for calling out the gratuitous and cringe-inspiring exercise in political correctness that welcome to country has become. No public occasion today, however grand or trite, is immune to this divisive ritual. Price sums up the absurdity of the mantra in these few words: “Australians don’t need to be welcomed to their own country.” Boom. By all means let it be trotted out on occasions with an Indigenous focus, but that’s where it should begin and end. And don’t get me started on the flag.

Peter Austin, Mount Victoria, NSW

I’m glad to hear some pushback against welcome to country. I’ve almost spoken out during an education session at work for a new IT program when the person started with a welcome to country. The endless empty gestures and virtue-signalling are tedious. All Australians are equal regardless of ancestry or how long it can be traced back to a patch of land.

Eric Starra, Rivett, ACT

Two articles in The Australian on Monday (“Meeting fatigue exhausting resources” and “If we help just 10,000 kids we’ll close the gap for good”) describe two organisations, KRED Enterprises and AIEF, that are doing excellent work in respectively promoting productive use of land held under native title and the education of young Indigenous people.

These organisations already exist, are fully functional and the work they are doing seems to be quite inspirational. All of which leads one to question the professed critical importance of the Aboriginal voice to parliament in “closing the gap”.

Bill Pannell, Dalkeith WA

If the figures quoted by federal Education Minister Jason Clare and AIEF’s Andrew Penfold are correct we need to spend just under $1.5bn to make a huge difference. In the context of today’s budgets, if that cannot be found then governments are not serious about closing the gap and the voice should be called out for the virtue-signalling that it is.

Chris Taylor, Dernancourt, SA

There seems to be a perception by the voice supporters that such a body will have a common view. Considering the divergent needs, cultural practices, aspirations, geography and languages of First Nations people, this is highly unlikely. If consensus cannot be reached on the Intervention, alcohol controls and the cashless debit card, the chances look grim.

Marshall Perron, Buderim, Qld