'We’ve had enough': Peta Credlin takes stance against Welcome to Country on Anzac Day

But first, I was sitting at my kitchen bench yesterday morning, reading through the papers and the Anzac Day coverage from Saturday. In particular, the bullying from some in response to the welcomes to country that have in recent times, at least, become an official part of Anzac services. And it was the sanctimony from the politicians that really got under my skin. So much so that I decided to post this message.

So far in just 24 hours has been viewed some 170,000 times. I'm just going through the papers and I have to say people booing on Anzac Day services. I'm sorry if you're a politician ripping into them today, you don't get a say. You don't get a say. People have had enough.

You know, in Victoria, my state of Victoria, they voted against the voice, and yet they're forced to have a treaty, they're forced to have all of this other stuff thrown at them. It's like their vote doesn't matter. So I can understand how cranky they are. Would I have done it? No, I wouldn't. But I don't do acknowledgements of country. And often I stand there for welcomes to country,

and I boo on the inside. Like we have had enough. There might be a place for a welcome to country. But it is not every place. It is not everywhere. Get the message, politicians. We have had enough. Now, as the granddaughter of a soldier who was wounded in New Guinea, as the sister of a former army officer,

yes, we should always be respectful. On what I regard as our most solemn national day. But that goes not just for those of us in the crowd, but organisers too. Most of all, it's the politicians that owe us all respect. The divisive race politics of welcoming Australians to their own country has no place on Anzac Day when it is the sacrifice, not the colour of our skin, that we stand in the dawn light to honour.

Yes, Aboriginal people have worn the uniform and fought for this country from the moment we sent our bravest off to war. But that's not what these Indigenous elders stood at the lectern to recognise. Their message to the assembled crowd

was one of landowner versus trespasser. Could it be any more insulting for our veterans than to welcome them to the very country that they were willing to die in order to defend? Or to the family standing in silence to remember a loved one who'd paid the ultimate sacrifice defending a land where they were now being made to feel unwelcome, indeed illegitimate. Here is Ray Minicorn, the Indigenous elder who delivered the welcome to country at the Sydney Dawn service. A man who served Australia for two years as a driver in the citizens' military forces

of the 51st Battalion Royal Queensland Regiment, interviewed earlier today by my colleague Laura Jays.

If I came into your home I'd expect you to acknowledge that this is your home, this is your house, this is and we're there to show the deepest respect to the host and that's all we're saying is that you know you're on our country, in our land, just acknowledge it and respect whose land you're on. It's not that difficult to understand for me.

Well, it is for me, I'm sorry, Ray, because your land is my land too. Your country is my country. After all, Credlins have been here for 172 years. We've worked to build and create this land. We've gone to war to defend it. So being Australian is all that I know. And that's how I suspect so many felt over the weekend. Commentators who accused the crowd of being disrespectful to individual Indigenous Australians, presumably

of course paid thousands of dollars to do these welcomes, well they missed the point. People were not booing these men, they were booing the officials that have forced these politically correct pantomimes on us. They were booing the politicians that are allowing Anzac Day to be denigrated and divided by race. And they were booing because they don't know how else now to get heard, given they

voted against things like the voice and still governments push treaties and racial separatism on them anyway. Where is the official edict that says we have to have welcomes and acknowledgements anyway? I'm not aware of any vote in the parliament that requires me, and yet other than at weddings or funerals, that'll come, I bet you that'll come,

these welcomes are everywhere, at everything. And yet by forcing welcomes to country and acknowledgments of country on us, whatever goodwill there once was is evaporating fast. Where before an Aboriginal element was added to an event where it was relevant,

like the AFL's upcoming Dreamtime Indigenous Round, well now you can hardly open an envelope without an elder giving us a lecture about stolen land. What was once a short, genuine welcome is now all too often a highly political rant. Here are some of the comments made

at the Melbourne Dawn service by Indigenous speaker Mark Brown. My country, he says, my lands, my people, amongst other things.

I'm here to welcome everybody to my father's country. Woo! Beautiful Boon Wurrung country. Woo! other things. We pay our respects to all of my ancestors. We pay our respects to all of my elders. And we pay our respects to all of my community members. Past, present and emerging. And we acknowledge the continuous and unbroken connection to country for the Boon Wurrung people. We also pay acknowledgments and respects to all traditional custodians of Australia, Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander. And we pay acknowledgments and respects to all of my Indigenous brothers and sisters from around the world.

Those remarks were tone deaf. They run for a number of minutes, yet nowhere anywhere did he mention the Anzacs, nor did he even say the word veteran. Indeed, he said nothing about the sacrifice of the dead at all or our shared hope for peace in the years ahead. So is it any wonder, listening to that, that these welcomes have lost so much community support? The great solemnity of Anzac Day is how we pause to honour the dead. And just like a military

uniform's a great leveller, and that you become part of something bigger than yourself as an individual, so too is death. And it is the dead that we bow our heads to remember, and their love of our country, a love so strong that they were willing to die to defend it. Not the events of 250 plus years ago that long, long predates any of the battles

that we commemorated over the weekend. For 90 plus years, we have stood together as Australians all on Anzac Day. And then about 10 years ago, these welcomes started to creep in. And this was all done in a highly political, very deliberate way. Don't tell me it's somehow an attempt at unity or inclusion.

It is not. Here is Sydney's Ray Minicorn once again.

I said to many of our young people, what I'm saying to you today is that, you know, racism is not an Aboriginal problem. It's a white fella problem. You fellas have got to sort through this issue in terms of the ways in which you treat us,

or treat the hosts of this country. And if you can do that, then we'd have a much more better society. But racism is not our problem.

We're not the ones dividing everyone by race. Now, interestingly, there were no audible boos at the service ahead of the traditional Anzac Day match at the MCG.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that this afternoon we are meeting on the lands of my ancestors, the Wurundjeri people. So woman, check or welcome, enjoy the game.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. they were not the official dawn service. As I said, the comments were short, they were respectful. As I said in my post, there might be a place for a welcome to country, but it's not every place and it is not everywhere. And just as I don't do an acknowledgement of country

in any speech I ever give, I've had enough of the gratuitous welcomes to country as well. One flag for me, one country for all of us, and no dividing Australians by their race. It's not too hard, is it? And yet why don't our politicians listen? Because believe me, It's not too hard, is it? And yet why don't our politicians listen? Because believe me,

until they do, that reaction from crowds will only grow.