Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe has been admonished as “childish” for deliberately interrupting Liberal politician Alex Antic as he gave a speech criticising a recent controversial ‘welcome to country’ ceremony.
Mr Antic was questioning the ahistorical assertion by Brendan Kerin at the AFL semi-final in Sydney on Saturday night that indigenous people have been performing the ritual for 250,000 years when Ms Thorpe interjected.
Last weekend we were told that welcome to country ceremonies were conducted in Australia 250,000 years ago!
Watch the shouting erupt in the Senate this afternoon when I dared to speak about it!
Watch below:- pic.twitter.com/kh2RJ9sQkU
— Senator Alex Antic (@SenatorAntic) September 18, 2024
But when asked what her point of order was, the Victorian Greens-turned-independent senator responded: “I just wanted to interrupt his speech.”
The South Australian Liberal senator continued, saying “Australians are getting fed-up with that sort of behaviour”.
“We haven’t arrived at this point overnight, it’s come because of years of indulging them, at woke community meetings, woke sports matches, woke council meetings” Mr Antic said, before being asked to take his seat again due to interjections.
“Colleagues, we’re only asking you to listen in peace and quiet for two minutes, that’s all, it’s not a big ask,” said the acting deputy president, while Ms Thorpe could be heard shouting unintelligibly in the background.
“Can we just do that, while the gallery’s full of people watching the behaviour here, it’s quite childish. Order.”
Mr Antic continued: “First it was 10,000 years, then 20, then 30, now 60, now it’s 250,000 years. And as we’ve said before, I don’t need to be welcomed to my own country, and nor do you.
“What we witnessed prior to the match last weekend was a product of letting this ride for too long. Have you had enough? I certainly have.”
Mr Kerin was also criticised for calling BC “Before Cook” during his presentation, for falsely claiming that “welcome to country” ceremonies has not been invented to cater for White people, and for alluding to violence.
This divisive Welcome to Country nonsense has been allowed to fester for far too long.
Australians are now being told Welcomes to Country had been performed for 250 thousand years and weren’t invented to cater to white people.
If they’re not to cater to white people, then why… pic.twitter.com/ewH7QWrMm3
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) September 17, 2024
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson responded to Mr Kerin on Tuesday by calling on all Australians to join her in turning their back on similar ceremonies.
“This divisive welcome to country nonsense has been allowed to fester for far too long. Australians are now being told welcomes to country had been performed for 250,000 years and weren’t invented to cater to White people,” she said.
“If they’re not to cater to White people, then why are White people constantly subjected to them? These welcomes are based on a lie: that Australia is not our home. So many people tell me they are just over it.
“Welcome to country performances are just racial antagonism disguised as reconciliation, imposed on children before they even get to school. Australia is home to all Australians, and we don’t need or want to be welcomed to our own home.”
Mr Kerin works for Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and regular welcome to country performed, but like Ms Thorpe is light-skinned and appears to have a large proportion of non-aboriginal ancestry.
