Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This divisive welcome to country nonsense has been allowed to fester for far too long. Brisbane footy fans were left scratching their heads on Saturday after they were told welcomes to country had been performed for 250,000 years and weren't invented to cater to white people. If they're not to cater to white people, why are white people constantly subjected to them? These welcomes are based on lies that Australia is not our home. So many people tell me they are just over it. Welcomes to country are just racial antagonism disguised as reconciliation, imposed on children before they even get to school and also when they are in school. Placing their hands on the ground is indoctrination.

Australia is home to all Australians, and we don't need or want to be welcomed to our own home. We have shed blood, sweat and tears to build and defend our home. We have as much right to live in our home as anyone else. If you hand over my home to someone else, I have nothing to fight for. If you hand over Australia, I will not defend it, and neither will my children. Being an elder doesn't obligate my respect. Respect is earned, not given away to racial exceptionalism. Being Aboriginal does not make someone exceptional. Being an Australian is what makes you exceptional. That's the identity we all share.

In this spirit, I stand and turn my back on welcomes to country here in parliament and out in public. It's a shame that so many other political leaders are too gutless to follow the same principle, desperate not to lose votes to the radical left. I strongly encourage Australians to do the same. Stop being walked over and stand up for your home.