Fraser Anning (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) in the last 15 years, Labor Governments around Australia have progressively forced Parliaments and every government department and instrumentality to begin public meetings with a secular genuflection to Aboriginal prior settlement called "acknowledgement of country",

(ii) this practice constitutes a tokenistic exercise invented by left-wing white activists, with absolutely no relationship to any authentic Aboriginal tradition, and simply seeks to co-opt aboriginal identity as a political weapon to undermine European settlement,

(iii) the bogus nature of this manufactured 'tradition' is highlighted by the fact that the wording used in Federal Parliament acknowledges the Ngunnawal people as the so­-called "traditional custodians" when in fact the Kamberri people were the original Aboriginal inhabitants of the region from which Canberra took its name, and

(iv) while the Gillard Labor Government imposed this left-wing tokenism on the Federal Parliament in 2010, subsequent Liberal-National Governments have notably failed to remove it from the standing orders, and this stands as a metaphor for their lack of conservative commitment and weakness of political will;

(b) seeks to assist the current Liberal-National Government to listen to its conservative conscience, and its political constituency, by proposing the removal of this socialist mantra for them; and

(c) amends standing order 50, by omitting the following:

(i) the words "and acknowledgement of country" in the title of standing order 50, and

(ii) "The President shall then make an acknowledgement of country in the following terms: I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area and pay respect to the elders, past and present, of all Australia's Indigenous peoples.".

Question negatived.