Townsville community leaders and politicians clash on Welcome to Country debate

A First Nations professor and advocate has shared the true purpose of Welcome to Country ceremonies as the divisive debate continues to grip the country.

Townsville leaders have clashed over the divisive debate surrounding the future of Welcome to Country ceremonies following a neo-Nazi heckling one on Anzac Day.

The heckles that rang out at the Melbourne Anzac Day Dawn Service from known neo-Nazi, Jacob Hersant,sparked the cancellation of several high profile Welcome to Country ceremonies and have ignited further debate around the appropriateness and timing of the cultural ceremonies.

Professor and advocate for First Nations people, Gracelyn Smallwood, has criticised the re-inflamed debate, labelling it another expression of Australia’s racism.

“What I want to say is that every time there’s an election in this country, Aboriginal and First Nations people have always been used as a political football and all the negative things stereotypes come up,” she said.

Gracelyn Smallwood. Picture: Evan Morgan

The retired nurse said the lack of education surrounding the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture and the impact of colonisation had led to widespread misinformation.

“Welcome to countries has never welcomed people to Australia,” Ms Gracelyn said.

“It’s been going on for 60,000 years, you’re welcoming people on your tract of land and there were hundreds of tracts of land in Australia, and there still are.

“If the next door neighbour feels like a cup of tea, she’s got to be welcomed at your house.”

Throughout her life, Ms Smallwood said she had seen First Nations people be told their advocacy was “overkill” and they should move on from the past which she likened to people requesting Anzac Day ceremonies be stopped.

A Bunurong elder delivers the Welcome to country on April 25, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. Anzac Day is a national holiday in Australia, traditionally marked by a dawn service held during the time of the original Gallipoli landing and commemorated with ceremonies and parades throughout the day. Anzac Day commemorates the day the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) landed on the shores of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, during World War 1. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

“If we say ‘phase Anzac Day out’ and we are tired of hearing the bugle, that would be a disastrous comment … and here they are telling us to get over it,” she said.

“All over the world they talk about the first people of that country so why is it overkill if they’re saying we pay respects to the traditional owners of Australia?”

The Liberal Federal member for Herbert Phillip Thompson agreed with the leader of his party, Peter Dutton, when he labelled it “overdone”.

“Of course it’s overdone,” he said.

“Every time you sit on a plane there’s a Welcome to Country, I think that’s a bit much.”

However he said Anzac Day services were not the day for protest and it could have been “handled a different way”.

Anzac Day 2025. Dawn service Anzac Park Townsville. Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson. Picture: Evan Morgan

“I don’t like that there’s booing at the Anzac Day ceremony,” he said.

“A friend of mine who I know very closely, he’s an Aboriginal soldier and he messaged me and he said that we’re all the same, we’re all together, we’re all one and Anzac Day is about remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, It’s not about anything else.”

A former soldier himself, Mr Thompson said he believed Welcome to Country ceremonies should only be used at significant events.

Labor Herbert candidate Edwina Andrew at Townsville Port. Picture: Evan Morgan

The Labor candidate for Herbert, Edwina Andrew directed the Townsville Bulletin to a spokesman to provide a ‘general comment’ on the issue, saying it was a matter for organisations to decide if they wish to hold a Welcome to Country Ceremony.

“Australians take pride in living in a country that is home to the oldest continuous culture on earth,” she said.

“Peter Dutton is using this as a distraction from answering questions about what he will cut to pay for his $600bn nuclear scheme.”

Originally published as Townsville community leaders and politicians clash on Welcome to Country debate