{"id":631583,"date":"2026-04-26T07:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T07:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:27:11","slug":"qld-premier-david-crisafulli-attends-anzac-day-event-with-no-acknowledgement-of-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/631583\/","title":{"rendered":"Qld Premier David Crisafulli attends Anzac Day event with no Acknowledgement of Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queensland premier has attended a dawn service in Townsville on Anzac Day, which did not include an Acknowledgement of Country, as southern states experienced heckling and booing during their services.<\/p>\n

The event in Townsville, which has a proud military history and is Australia’s largest garrison city, also did not include a Welcome to Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Premier David Crisafulli and Townsville Mayor Nick Dametto attended the ceremony in Anzac Memorial Park held by the Townsville RSL sub-branch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President of the Townsville RSL sub-branch Colin Mosch confirmed the branch had decided not to include Welcome to or Acknowledgement of Country in the Anzac Day Dawn Service.<\/p>\n

“The Anzac Day Dawn Service is about one thing, remembering those who have served and have paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Mr Mosch said.\"A<\/p>\n

The service was organised by the Townsville RSL sub-branch.\u00a0 (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n

The 2025 and 2024 services in Townsville both included an Acknowledgement of Country for the traditional landholders, the Bindal and Wulgurukaba peoples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The branch confirmed it was responsible for coordinating the protocol for Anzac Day services, not the Townsville City Council, which assisted the branch in delivering the events.<\/p>\n

Outside of Queensland, booing and heckling occurred during Welcome to Country at dawn services <\/a>around the country including in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.<\/p>\n

Mr Crisafulli’s office did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The dawn service was held at Anzac Memorial Park.\u00a0 (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n

Police Minister Dan Purdie said Anzac Day was the “most important day on our calendar” and he attended six Anzac Day events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to the premier’s attendance at the Townsville event, Mr Purdie said the events were organised by local schools and RSLs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We don’t organise these events, we say yes to as many as we possibly can and we attend,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indigenous commissioner labels attendance ‘disrespectful’<\/p>\n

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said there were a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen who fought in World War I.<\/p>\n

“I think having the premier attend those events and not give recognition to our black diggers, I think, is very disrespectful,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I also note that Palm Island, which was one of the major reserves in the Queensland jurisdiction where Aboriginal people were sent under the Protection Act, is just across the way and they held a beautiful ceremony yesterday to pay respect to all those who served in the wars in Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie Kiss says many First Nations people fought in World War I.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In response to the premier attending the Townsville ceremony, Opposition Leader Steven Miles said Anzac Day programs were up to the RSL in each community.<\/p>\n

“It’s a day that we mark respect for all who served, including First Nations Australians,” he said.<\/p>\n

Leader of the federal Opposition Angus Taylor said booing during Anzac Day ceremonies, whatever the cause, was “inappropriate and un-Australian”.<\/p>\n

“I can understand the frustration Australians feel about overuse of Welcome to Country.<\/p>\n

“I feel that at times, often actually, I think it is overused,” he told Insiders.<\/p>\n

“I would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued as I think they have been over time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland premier has attended a dawn service in Townsville on Anzac Day, which did not include an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[85102,64,63,299741,44,6649,18402],"class_list":{"0":"post-631583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-anzac-day","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-dawn-service","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-townsville","14":"tag-welcome-to-country"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}