New Liberal leader Sussan Ley has seemingly continued comments made by her predecessor, arguing there is a time and place for Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Ms Ley also gave a convoluted answer when asked about her position on standing in front of the Indigenous flags, something Peter Dutton said he would refuse to do if elected Prime Minister.
In her first address after winning the internal vote on Tuesday, Ms Ley used a slightly more conciliatory tone than that of her former boss.
"We should unite under the one Australian flag, that is my firm view," she said, before pivoting slightly to add, "Of course I'm happy to stand in front of the Aboriginal flag".
During the election campaign, Mr Dutton doubled down on comments he first made last year on standing in front of the Indigenous flags, arguing his policy to stand behind one flag was "because I want our country to be united under one flag".
"I want our country to be as good as it can be, and we can't be as good as we can be if we're separating people into different groupings," he said.
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Last year, VACCHO chief executive Dr Jill Gallagher said Mr Dutton was using the flag comments to promote the "very division he is pretending to address" and argued all Australians should "take pride" in the fact that the country has the oldest living culture in the world.
Ms Ley also weighed in on Welcome to Country ceremonies, but seemingly mixed them up with an Acknowledgment to Country.
Whilst a Welcome to Country is a traditional 'welcome' by an Elder on their ancestral lands, an Acknowledgment is performed by a non-Indigenous person before a meeting, or on a flight, to acknowledge the original custodians of the Country they are on.
Ms Ley told reporters, "With respect to Welcome to Country, it's simple: if it's meaningful, if it matters, if it resonates, then it's in the right place".
"If it is done in a way that is ticking a box on a Teams meeting, then I don't think it is relevant," she said.
The new Liberal leader added: "It actually diminishes the value of what it is, and it's important that we understand that."
The Welcome to Country debate exploded into the wider public consciousness in April after Bunurong Elder Uncle Mark Brown was booed whilst delivering a welcome at Friday's Anzac Day dawn ceremony in Melbourne.
In the aftermath, Mr Dutton told a leaders' debate: "I think there is, and people have said this to me as we've moved across the country, there is a sense across the community that it's [Welcome to Country] overdone."
Former Liberal Minister Ken Wyatt was critical of Mr Dutton's comments at the time, arguing Welcome to Country was akin to welcoming people into "somebody's home or somebody's homeland".
"I'm disappointed with anybody who doesn't take the time to understand the importance of friendship, welcoming and acknowledging that you are part of the community and you're being welcomed into somebody's home country, home region, and to politicise it just adds to the division," he said.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who defected to the Liberals' party room last week, previously backed Mr Dutton's comments.
"My position has always been that we have absolutely overdone Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of country, especially when they become politicised sort of statements that are divisive, as opposed to you know, feeling like it is a welcome," she told Sky News in April.
A focus on culture wars, rather than policy designed to help people with the cost-of-living, including First Peoples, was widely seen as a reason behind the Coalition's disastrous election result.
Writing last Saturday, Managing Director of National Indigenous Times, Reece Harley, argued Peter Dutton and the Coalition "treated Indigenous issues as political bait" by pushing "culture wars when what we needed were policies".
"The 2025 election result is a direct response to that failure. Voters saw through the empty slogans. They rejected a party that had nothing to offer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but blame, denial, and silence," Mr Harley said.
