‘I boo on the inside’: Peta Credlin says Australians have ‘had enough’ of Welcome to Country
Peta Credlin has launched a fiery attack on Welcome to Country ceremonies, saying she understands why people are “cranky” and often “I boo on the inside”.
Sky News host Peta Credlin claims Australians have “had enough” of “divisive” Welcome to Country ceremonies on Anzac Day after the booing during the Indigenous acknowledgments marred Dawn Services for the second year.
The former chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in a fiery social media video on Sunday, said while she would not have booed, she understood why people were “cranky” and that often “I boo on the inside”.
“I’m sorry, if you’re a politician ripping into them today, you don’t get a say,” Credlin said in the viral clip.
“People have had enough. In Victoria they voted against the Voice, and yet they’re forced to have a treaty, they’re forced to have all of this other stuff thrown at them, it’s like their vote doesn’t matter. So I can understand how cranky they are.
“Would I have done it? No I wouldn’t. But I don’t do Acknowledgements of Country. And often I stand there for Welcomes to Country and I boo on the inside. Like, we have had enough. There might be a place for a Welcome to Country, but it is not every place, it is not everywhere. Get the message, politicians, we have had enough.”
Speaking on her Sky News program, Credlin stressed that as a family member of veterans she agreed “we should always be respectful of what I regard as our most solemn national day”.
“But that goes not just for those of us in the crowd but organisers too,” she said.
“Most of all it’s the politicians that owe us all respect. The divisive race politics of Welcoming Australians to their own country has no place on Anzac Day when it is the sacrifice, not the colour of our skin, that we stand in the dawn light to honour.
“Yes, Aboriginal people have worn the uniform and fought for this country from the moment we sent our bravest off to war. But that’s not what these Indigenous elders stood at the lectern to recognise. Their message to the assembled crowd was one of landowner versus trespasser.
“Could it be any more insulting for our veterans than to welcome them to the very country that they were willing to die in order to defend? Or what of the families standing in silence to remember a loved one who paid the ultimate sacrifice defending a land where they were now being made to feel unwelcome, indeed, illegitimate.”
It comes as polling data on Wednesday released by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), a conservative think tank, suggested Australians were increasingly turning against Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Just under half (49 per cent) of respondents said the ceremonies should no longer be performed at Anzac Day services — up from 46 per cent in June last year — while 60 per cent said they should be ditched from sporting matches.
Sixty per cent said the ceremonies had become “divisive”, up from 56 per cent last year.
The majority of men (55 per cent) said the Welcome to Country should no longer be performed at Anzac Day services, versus 42 per cent of women.
By age group, those aged 25-34 were most in favour of scrapping the ceremonies (53 per cent), while those aged 18-24 were most opposed (42 per cent).
The poll of 1001 Australians aged 18 and older was undertaken by independent marketing research firm Dynata.
“More and more Australians are saying they want Anzac Day ceremonies to focus exclusively on the sacrifices of our Diggers, and to drop the inappropriate Welcome to Country ceremonies which create division,” IPA deputy executive director Daniel Wild said in a statement.
“Welcome to Country ceremonies are anything but welcoming. They have become hostile, aggressive, and a form of moral hectoring designed to make Australians feel bad about their nation and history.”
Dawn Services in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide were marred by booing during the Welcome to Country acknowledgment on Saturday, prompting widespread condemnation from political leaders.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor, speaking to the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, called booing at Anzac Day ceremonies “inappropriate and un-Australian” but claimed Indigenous acknowledgments were often “overused”.
But one of the country’s most senior military officers, the Defence Force’s Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral Justin Jones, stressed the importance of “freedom of expression” after he was asked about the “disappointing” incidents on Saturday.
“Well, one of the things that we in the defence force are defending, as I’ve said, is our democracy and freedom of expression,” he said on Sky News.
“So, whilst that might be disappointing, those are exactly the principles that the Australian Defence Force is designed to defend.”
Defence Minister Richard Marles, asked to react to Admiral Jones’ comments on Monday, told the ABC, “The principle of freedom of speech can be exercised by all of us.
“And let me say I’m exercising my freedom of speech right now to make it absolutely clear that the booing that occurred on Anzac Day was a disgrace, and that’s the only way in which it ought to be characterised.”
RSL national president Peter Tinley said on Monday the veterans league would review its guidance about Welcome to Country addresses on Anzac Day in the wake of the incidents.
Mr Tinley said he personally supported them and was “appalled” by the booing, but the decision should fall to individual branches.
“What happens in far north Queensland or in far north Western Australia, they are localised choices,” he told the ABC.
“They have to have a nose to the atmosphere that they’re working in, but we will show leadership. We will review policies. We provide guidance to our branches as to how they might attend to this.”
Uncle Mark Brown, a Bunurong and Gunditjmara elder, delivered the Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance on Saturday morning, where his comments were interrupted by loud heckling and boos for the second year in a row, after neo-Nazis hijacked the 2025 event.
Mr Brown later shared a defiant message on LinkedIn, saying “what you saw doesn’t represent this country” and “it doesn’t represent who we are”.
“We’re still here. And we’re not going anywhere,” he wrote.
Indigenous veteran Ray Minniecon, who delivered the Welcome to Country at the Sydney Dawn Service, told Sky News host Laura Jayes it was “not difficult to understand”.
“If I came into your home I’d expect you to acknowledge that this is your home, this is your house, and we’re there to show the deepest respect to the host,” he said.
“And that’s all we’re saying — is that you’re on our country, in our land, just acknowledge it and respect whose land you’re on.”
Eli Toby, 24, who is accused of booing during the Sydney service, was confronted by a TV reporter outside his home in Penrith on Tuesday.
“Do you have any apology to make to the Diggers, to their families?” 7News reporter Clementine Cuneo asked.
“How’d you find me?” Mr Toby said.
He then requested that the reporter didn’t tell his mum and dad what he has been accused of.
“I haven’t told them yet. I’d rather you guys not tell them,” he said.
When questioned, Mr Toby said the Welcome to Country was “not right” because “it’s designed to humiliate the memory of white Australia”.
Police will allege that Mr Toby was part of a group of people who booed at the Welcome to Country.
“There were about 11,000 people at the Martin Place Dawn Service,” NSW Police said in a statement.
“Thousands of people lined Elizabeth Street, Sydney, to honour service men, women and relatives during the march.
“About 4.30am (Saturday 25 April 2026), police responded to an alleged act of nuisance during a war memorial service at Martin Place.
“Officers attached to Operation Anzac Day identified a 24-year-old man attending the service and arrested him.
“Other people were moved on from the service.
“The 24-year-old man was taken to Day Street Police Station where he was charged with commit nuisance in, on etc war memorial.
“He was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday 3 June 2026.
“Police will allege in court the man booed while at the Cenotaph site.”
Anti-immigration group March for Australia had shared a social media post encouraging people to boo at Dawn Services, asking, “How loud will you be this year?”
But MFA organiser Bec Walker, aka Bec Freedom, denied the controversial group had “organised” the booing.
“I’d like to refute that this was a campaign organised by either myself or FightForAustralia/MarchForAustralia,” she told The Guardian on Monday.
“We simply put a few posts up asking people if they would be booing this year due to the amount of grassroots public interest on this topic. But yes, I stand by the content I put out about it.”