Angus Taylor claims Welcome to Country ceremonies are ‘overused’ after Anzac Day booing

Dechlan Brennan
Dechlan Brennan Published April 26, 2026 at 1.40pm (AWST)

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has take a leaf out of former Liberal leader Peter Dutton's playbook, arguing Welcome to Country ceremonies are overused.

Speaking on ABC Insiders on Sunday, a day after Aboriginal Elders were booed at Anzac Day services in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, Mr Taylor condemned the booing but said he could "understand the frustration Australians feel about over-use" of Welcome to Country ceremonies.

"I feel that at times — often, actually. I think it is overused and as a result they are devalued," he said. "I would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued, as I think they have been over time."

Mr Taylor, who also refused to criticise far-right politician Pauline Hanson's comments on immigration, added: "It's up to individual organising committees to decide whether they want to do it or not.

"But the general principle should be: let's do this less and make it more special when it happens."

His comments echo remarks made by former Opposition leader Peter Dutton during last year's election campaign, when he argued Welcome to Country ceremonies were "dividing the country in the same way the Voice referendum did".

"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," he said at the time.

"It divides the country. Not dissimilar to what the Prime Minister did with the Voice."

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The comments follow widespread condemnation of booing directed at Aboriginal Elders during Anzac Day commemorations.

In Melbourne, Bunurong Elder Mark Brown was booed during his Welcome to Country. In Sydney, an Acknowledgment of Country by Ray Minniecon was interrupted by hecklers, while in Boorloo/Perth, Whadjuk Noongar Elder and veteran Di Ryder was also booed during her address.

After Aunty Di's speech, RSL WA chief executive Stephen Barton condemned the disruption.

"Di, on behalf of RSL and veteran community, I offer my heartfelt thank you for that acknowledgement to country," he said. "It [the booing] was one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard."

In the days leading up to the services, anti-immigration group Fight for Australia used social media to urge supporters to attend and voice opposition to Welcome to Country ceremonies.

On Saturday, The Age reported some of those involved in booing at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance were former members and associates of the recently disbanded National Socialist Network.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan also condemned those who disrupted the Melbourne service.

"To break the stillness of Dawn Service is not just ugly behaviour towards our Aboriginal servicemen and women who defended this country — it disrespects everyone who fought for our freedoms," she said.

"Politicising this sacred day is bastardry. I condemn it and so should every leader."

Writing in The Guardian Australia, Indigenous academic Marcia Langton called for those involved in the heckling to be banned from future events.

"What Uncle Mark, Uncle Ray and Aunty Di know, and what the elders of the RSL know, is that more than 118 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men served in the Australian Light Horse during the First World War," she wrote.

"The morons who tried to snatch the sacred moment away from them, and those of us who observe with them at dawn services, deserve more than contempt and a few words of rancour."

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National Indigenous Times

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