Peter Dutton has pledged to never address the country as prime minister while flanked by the Indigenous flags because he believes it “divides people unnecessarily”.
The Opposition Leader has long appeared publicly without the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags behind him.
On Monday night he said Australians should “respect” the flags, but that ultimately the country only has one national ensign.
“I’m very strongly of the belief that we are a country united under one flag and if we’re asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that, and we are dividing our country unnecessarily,” he told Sky News.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has pledged never to address the country as prime minister while flanked by the Indigenous flags because ‘divides people unnecessarily’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
“We should have respect for the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag, but they are not our national flags.”
He accused Anthony Albanese of pandering to the public, saying the Prime Minister was trying “to be all things to all people”.
“The fact is that we should stand up for who we are, for our values, what we believe in,” he said.
“We are united as a country when we gather under one flag, which is what we should do on Australia Day.”
Mr Dutton’s latest election promise came a day after Coalition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said she wanted to windback Welcome to Country ceremonies because they were “commercialisation of culture”.
The Albanese government has sought increase First Nations representation since coming to power in 2022, including through its failed Voice referendum. Picture: NewsWire / David Crosling
“There are those right around the country, who basically their only role, their only source of income, is delivering Welcome to Country,” Senator Price told Sky News.
“This commercialisation of culture, which is exactly what is going on, I can understand there will be those that will be upset if we try to bring it to an end.”
The Albanese government has sought increase First Nations representation since coming to power in 2022, including through its failed Voice referendum, which would have set up a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues.
Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated group of people in the world, and have significantly shorter life expectancies than their non-Indigenous counterparts.