{"id":632327,"date":"2026-04-26T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/632327\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:21:16","slug":"angus-taylor-blames-overuse-of-welcome-to-country-for-anzac-day-boos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/632327\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor blames overuse of welcome to country for Anzac Day boos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angus Taylor has partly blamed \u201cover-use\u201d of welcome to country ceremonies, but condemned \u201cun-Australian\u201d heckling of Indigenous presenters who were booed at Anzac Day dawn services, including in Perth.<\/p>\n

The Federal Opposition Leader called the booing \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d when asked on Sunday, but then explained it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand the frustration Australians feel about overuse (of) welcomes to country,\u201d he told ABC Insiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that at times, often actually, I think it is overused and as a result they are devalued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued as I think they have been over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it shouldn\u2019t be restricted, but should be done less.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to individual organising communities to decide whether they want to do it or not. But the general principle should be, let\u2019s do this less and make it more special when it happens,\u201d Mr Taylor said.<\/p>\n

WA Liberal Leader Basil Zempilas backed him and suggested the welcome to country should be saved for \u201csignificant\u201d occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with the sentiment from some in our community that the welcome to country appears to happen more and more at events that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily think are of that stature of standing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I understand the sentiments from those in the community who might believe there are one of two examples of it occurring too often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed three times to provide an example, Mr Zempilas eventually said a ribbon-cutting at a new train station shouldn\u2019t require the acknowledgement.<\/p>\n

But he said Anzac Day was the wrong time and place to argue the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can argue the toss, of course, that\u2019s what we love about Australia,\u201d Mr Zempilas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can argue whether you like something or not, but during the welcome to country at the dawn service that the performer has been invited to by the RSL, that\u2019s not the time to argue that toss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WACamera IconWA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas at the 2026 Anzac Day dawn service in Kings Park. Credit: Facebook<\/p>\n

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Don Punch accused the Liberal leaders of courting \u201cracist views\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a welcome to country is, it\u2019s saying g\u2019day, saying welcome to the land, it\u2019s respecting First Nations culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I totally reject that view, and I think it\u2019s very disingenuous of Angus Taylor and Basil Zempilas to climb onto what is emerging as a populist view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would urge them to just acknowledge that we have some people who have some very strong views, some racist views, but to get over it, because welcome to country\u2019s are an important part of our heritage and our Australian communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Zempilas attended the Kings Park dawn service, alongside Premier Roger Cook, who called the booing during Indigenous veteran Di Ryder\u2019s speech \u201cdisgusting and disrespectful\u201d.<\/p>\n

Services in Sydney and Melbourne were similarly disrupted. There was also heckling at Busselton.<\/p>\n

WA Police said 15 move-on orders were issued in relation to dawn service disruptions \u201cas part of preventative and responsive policing actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PremierCamera IconPremier Roger Cook with Di Ryder, who delivered the acknowledgement of country at the Kings Park dawn service. Credit: Gary Ramage\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

RSLWA President Duncan Anderson called those responsible \u201ccretins\u201d for disrespecting the spirit of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnzac Day, particularly the dawn service, is a politics free-zone,\u201d Mr Anderson said.<\/p>\n

National RSL President Peter Tinley said the organisation was \u201cappalled\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RSL is 110 years old and this is a blight on all veterans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 364 other days you can protest on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically we fought for the right to have the freedom of speech, and that is a mutual contract to act within the character of what it is to be an ANZAC.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor has partly blamed \u201cover-use\u201d of welcome to country ceremonies, but condemned \u201cun-Australian\u201d heckling of Indigenous presenters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,84,7239,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-632327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-state-politics","13":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632327","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=632327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}