Dutton wants to limit Welcome to Country

Despite the fact that over 5,000 Indigenous Australians served across the First and Second World Wars, Opposition leader Peter Dutton has claimed a Welcome to Country was inappropriate at Friday’s Anzac ceremonies.

His comment come after the booing of Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne by a group led by a neo–nazi.

At a press conference on Monday morning g Mr Dutton replied to a questions as to whether he thought Anzac Day was an appropriate time for a welcome, with the word: “no”.

“I think that is over the top,” he said.

“Listening to a lot of veterans in the space, Anzac Day is about our veterans, about 103,000 Australians who have died in the service of our country.

“I think if you are listening to their sentiment, and we are respectful of that sentiment on Anzac Day, I think the majority view would be that they don’t want it on that day.”

And in a leaders’ debate on Sunday evening Mr Dutton said: “I think other Australians think it is overdone and cheapens the significance of what it was meant to do, it divides the country, not dissimilar to what the prime minister did with the Voice.”

Mr Dutton said he thought a Welcome to Country was appropriate for the opening of Parliamant but not on Anzac Day, on planes, at the footy or at the start of work meetings.

So 5,000 Indigenous veterans are forgotten?