Three people stand in front of the Australian Aboriginal flag: a woman with a microphone on the left, a man in a suit in the centre, and a man wearing a cap and cloak on the right.
Design: Liam Rātana

OPINIONPoliticsApril 29, 2025

Australia’s Anzac Day Welcome to Country controversy is why I’m glad I don’t live there

Ātea editor
Three people stand in front of the Australian Aboriginal flag: a woman with a microphone on the left, a man in a suit in the centre, and a man wearing a cap and cloak on the right.
Design: Liam Rātana

Disruption during a traditional Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service has revealed the grim state of race relations across the ditch, writes Ātea editor Liam Rātana.

It was 5.30am on Anzac Day. The sky was still dark, but 50,000 people had gathered at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne to honour those who served – including the estimated 5,000 Aboriginal soldiers who fought in the first and second world wars.

Draped in a traditional possum fur cloak, Bunurong elder Mark Brown stood in front of the podium to welcome the crowd to the land of his ancestors. As he began speaking, a small group of hecklers attempted to interrupt Brown with boos and negative comments. “What about the Anzacs?” one of them shouted. “Don’t welcome me to my own country.” Despite the attempted interference, a defiant Brown continued with his welcome, being met with applause from others in the crowd.

That evening, local NRL team Melbourne Storm was set to play in a highly anticipated match in front of 26,000 fans at a sold-out AAMI Park. To start proceedings, Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy Wandin had been invited to provide a Welcome to Country to start the Anzac Day ceremony. 

However, following the morning’s events and subsequent controversy, Murphy Wandin was told she would no longer be required as the Welcome to Country was cancelled. “The board doesn’t feel comfortable having a Welcome to Country because of what happened in regards to the booing of Uncle Mark Brown at the Anzac Dawn Service,” is what the Djirri Djirri dancers, who were meant to perform following the Welcome to Country, allege they were told. Murphy Wandin said the Storm then reversed its decision before its chief executive Justin Rodski allegedly cancelled it again. This was despite Murphy Wandin already being at the stadium and having completed her final rehearsal.

Subsequent reporting has revealed that Storm director Brett Ralph is a significant donor to right-wing lobby group Advance, which is actively campaigning to end the practice of Welcomes to Country around Australia. The Storm have since released a statement claiming the cancellation was due to a “miscommunication of expectations regarding the use of Welcome to Country at Melbourne Storm events” between the club’s board and management. It is alleged the board were unaware that a Welcome to Country was to be performed at Friday’s game.

First Nations Australians protest on Australia Day, or Invasion Day, on January 26, 2018. (Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images).

The Welcome to Country is not a new practice. As Aboriginal Australian education leader Jessa Rogers recently wrote, “Welcome to Country is a sovereign Aboriginal protocol, grounded in the laws, customs and practices of First Nations that have existed on this continent for tens of thousands of years”. A Welcome to Country is conducted by an elder, a formally recognised traditional owner, or a custodian, to greet visitors to their ancestral land. The ceremony can vary in form, often featuring a speech, traditional dance and a smoking ceremony.

The practice saw a modern renaissance in the late 1970s, following a Welcome to Country performed by Yamtji men Ernie Dingo and Richard Walley, for a group of Aotearoa Māori and Cook Islands Māori attending the Perth Fringe Festival. It is widely believed to be one of the first recorded welcomes for a group of people not indigenous to Australia.

In 2008, the official opening of Australia’s federal parliament began with a Welcome to Country for the first time. It has since become a standard feature. The day after, then prime minister Kevin Rudd gave a formal apology to indigenous Australians for the atrocities committed against them.

However, following the Anzac Day controversy over the weekend, the use of Welcomes to Country was thrust into the spotlight, highlighting deeper issues around race relations in Australia. On Sunday evening, during the final leaders’ debate prior to the Australian election, opposition leader Peter Dutton claimed Welcome to Country ceremonies were “overdone” and said their regular use “cheapens the significance”. It was an easy way for Dutton to score brownie points with the (probably small) sector of Australians that agree with him, much like the politicians here in Aotearoa who pander to a similarly small, yet vocal crowd.

The kerfuffle with the Welcomes to Country in Melbourne on Anzac Day made me sad. Sad for our indigenous brothers and sisters in Te Whenua Momoeā. Sad that they are still being met with such overt racism while practicing their cultural traditions, literally welcoming people to the whenua where they have lived for at least 65,000 years. Sad for my cousins, nieces and nephews who call Australia home. Sad that they are growing up and living in a land where some people still have such visibly little tolerance and respect for indigenous cultures.

While I am fully aware that racism is alive and well here in Aotearoa, I like to (perhaps ignorantly) believe that our race-relations are better than that of the country across the ditch. We don’t have people attempting to stop others from singing the national anthem in te reo Māori, or running on the field to stop the All Blacks doing a haka. 

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However, we do have several recent instances of intolerance for indigenous practices and beliefs here in Aotearoa. One such case is that of Kaipara District mayor Craig Jepson, praised by many of his constituents for banning karakia before council meetings. I also vividly recall a group of Pākehā verbally expressing their dismay at a karanga being performed for Lani Daniels’ entrance to her world heavyweight boxing title fight in 2023. “Just get on with the fight,” one of them said as she tsked and rolled her eyes.

Although I believe we are slightly more tolerant of, and educated on, the importance of Māori cultural customs in Aotearoa, I also think the select group of our population that is against the growing normalisation of these practices is becoming more galvanised in their beliefs. With that comes a growing inclination and comfort in publicly and explicitly expressing those views – not just on social media, but in real life too. My only hope is that we are quick to call out this harmful behaviour and continue to foster an acceptance of all cultures among our youth – especially of the indigenous culture of this land. One of the most important things to remember from this whole fiasco is children don’t invent racism, they learn it.

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A woman in a black blazer smiles at the camera with a cityscape and harbor in the background during dusk.
Tory Whanau will not be seeking another term as mayor (Photo: Supplied)

PoliticsApril 29, 2025

Tory Whanau drops out of mayoral race

Politics reporter
A woman in a black blazer smiles at the camera with a cityscape and harbor in the background during dusk.
Tory Whanau will not be seeking another term as mayor (Photo: Supplied)

The mayor of Wellington has announced she will not be seeking re-election at this year’s local election, and will instead stand in the Māori ward.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has announced that she will not be seeking a second term when the city heads to the polls later this year. As of today, Whanau will instead run for councillor of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Wellington City Council’s Māori ward, with the goal of delivering “progressive and transformational change for Wellington” while campaigning  alongside her left-bloc rival Andrew Little, rather than against him.

After appearing to waver late last year, in February Whanau formally confirmed that she would be seeking re-election as mayor and, earlier this month, said she would be standing as a Green Party candidate. In 2022, when she unseated the incumbent Andy Foster in a landslide victory to become the first Māori mayor of Wellington, Whanau ran as an independent but was endorsed by the Greens.

Today’s announcement comes the day after the mayor launched the first stage of the Golden Mile upgrade in Courtenay Place, a project Whanau said had been a “key milestone for my mayoralty and the transformative change I campaigned on”. Now, with the project under way and Labour-endorsed candidate Little, a former minister and party leader, stepping into the race, Whanau said recent developments had “changed the game”. Advance voting in the local elections kicks off in less than five months, opening on September 9 and closing on October 11.

“I have a lot of respect for Andrew and his leadership skills. He has support from many corners and the skills and experience to unite our council,” Whanau said in a statement to The Spinoff. “When I had put my name forward to run for mayor again, I was worried there were no viable candidates for mayor. Now that has changed, I can now focus on what is important to me.”

Whanau said the “progressive goals” she had fought for were at risk this election, and she didn’t want a “Green vs Labour narrative to distract from what’s important for our city. That is not what this election should be about.”

Last week, Whanau told The Spinoff she was trying to “poach” Labour’s current Onslow-Western ward councillor Rebecca Matthews to run for the Greens, after Matthews was apparently frozen out by Labour. Matthews confirmed she intended to seek the Green Party nomination.

Whanau said her focus now was on “working to get a strong group of Green candidates elected to WCC to push for progressive change”.

“I am incredibly excited about running for the Māori ward at a time when te Tiriti is under attack from central government. I want to continue making Pōneke a city that embraces te Tiriti, work closely with mana whenua and deliver on affordable housing, nature and water.”

Nīkau Wi Neera and Tory Whanau

The current Māori ward councillor is the Greens’ Nīkau Wi Neera, who was voted in when the ward was established in 2022, and who will not be seeking re-election. Wi Neera was a central figure in reversing the decision to sell the council’s shares in Wellington airport, and late last year told The Spinoff, “I think there are lots of people at the party who want to kick me out.”

Whanau thanked Wi Neera for his “tireless mahi on advancing kaupapa Māori for Wellington City Council”, while Wi Neera told The Spinoff, “Tory has great relationships with our mana whenua, and will continue the transformational process she has begun as mayor. I expect she and Andrew will make a fantastic team.”

Wellington City Council voted to retain its Māori ward in September last year, but constituents will get the final say in a binding poll being held as part of this year’s local election, a controversial requirement mandated by legislation passed by the coalition government. The change will come into effect from 2028, meaning no matter the result of the poll, Wellington’s next Māori ward councillor is safe for at least a term. Whanau has said she is confident Wellingtonians will vote to retain the ward.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau and councillor Liz Kelly talk to media inside parliament.
Wellington city councillor Liz Kelly with mayor Tory Whanau after submitting against the Treaty principles bill (Photo: Lyric Waiwiri-Smith)

Whanau’s mayoralty has been marred by a number of personal controversies, as well as in-fighting within the council and with central government. The projects that are likely to define her term are yet to be fully realised, such as the Golden Mile upgrade and the District Plan, while her championing of cycleways has provided more immediate changes to the city (though are a thorn in the side for some ratepayers).

Whanau said her mayoralty had been shaped by “bold decisions that will make our city a better place for generations to come”. She said she was most proud of directing 30% of the council’s budget ($1.8bn) towards water, passing the District Plan, constructing new cycleways and bus lanes, the planting of 223,000 trees across the city, boosting funding to address city safety and the homeless and further funding for the City Mission to open Wellington’s first wet house, Te Pā Maru.

Other projects she highlighted are still to be completed, such as the reopening of the Moa Point waste plant, the Central Library and Te Ngakau Civic Square, all scheduled to be completed in early to mid 2026. Whanau also cited the opening of the Town Hall, set for 2027, and the regeneration of Courtenay Place, to be completed in 2028.

As of today, the mayoral contest is between Little, councillor Ray Chung, businessman Karl Tiefenbacher, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, former city councillor Rob Goulden and former owner of Wellington LIVE Graham Bloxham, but candidate nominations don’t close until August. In the race to be the Māori ward councillor, Whanau will come up against the Labour-backed Matthew Reweti, who ran for the same position in the 2022 elections and lost by 65 votes.

“Change isn’t easy and will always have its critics,” Whanau said. “But I have stayed true to the vision I was elected to deliver and always been upfront about the challenges we face.”

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