Preacher taken to Human Rights Commission after refusing to perform Welcome to Country

A conservative preacher says he has been hauled before the Queensland Human Rights Commission after refusing to perform the Welcome to Country at a conference.

Dave Pellowe, an outspoken right-wing commentator and Christian minister, said the complaint was made by an attendee of one of his “Church and State” conferences in Queensland earlier this year after he told the man he chose to leave out the Indigenous ceremony because “you can’t mix Christianity, a true religion, with something that is made up”.

Instead of the Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country, which are ubiquitous before events as a sign of respect to Indigenous Australians, Mr Pellowe read out a Bible verse, Psalm 24, which begins: “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”

Mr Pellowe claimed the man who raised the complaint had attended the May event, one of a series held across Queensland electorates in partnership with the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), only to later complain that “I have racially vilified and humiliated him on the grounds of his race and religion”.

The complaint does not specifically relate to the Welcome to Country or the Bible verse, according to Mr Pellowe, but rather his answer about the decision.

“I don’t know if he’s some other religion or why he came to a Christian event to hear from a Christian teacher of Christian doctrine,” he told online news network ADH TV.

“The ubiquitousness of these Welcome to Country rituals being imposed upon Australians of all beliefs or non-belief at sporting events, when you land on a plane, when you walk into a government building, when you visit a website, when you start a Zoom meeting,” Mr Pellowe said.

“These are religious rituals which Christians in particular should have no part of. And under a democratic, allegedly secular and pluralistic society, it should also be something that the taxpayer doesn’t fund and the government doesn’t impose. It’s the duty of Christians to preach the truth and gospel and to not mix Christianity with false religion, such as the Aboriginal traditional religion, which is bearing all the hallmarks of paganism … inherently false beliefs.”

He said he did not care if the penalty was $2.50.

“On the principle of it, I will not apologise for preaching the gospel,” he said.

Speaking to 2GB host Ben Fordham on Friday, Mr Pellowe said the goal of the tour was to teach Christians the “historical and scriptural background and permission that Christians have to participate in democracy and exercise their voice just like any other constituency in the nation”.

“It’s a Christian teaching meeting by Christians, for Christians, of Christian doctrine,” he said.

According to Mr Pellowe, at the end of the evening during the Q&A, a friend of the complainant asked why he was not afraid of offending anyone by not doing a Welcome to Country.

“So I gave a full and analytical assessment of the differences between Aboriginal traditional religion and Christianity, and concluded that they’re incompatible and that no authentic, loving Christian should mix the two,” he said.

“And that, the complainant alleges, is racial vilification and humiliation.”

Mr Pellowe said now a complaint had been filed, he was compelled to respond to the QHRC.

“This is where the problem is … with a grievance industry that has no bar for accepting grievances,” he said.

“As long as it fits in the category … if the complaint is an allegation of vilification or discrimination or something like that, they don’t need to establish any merit or validity or credibility to it, they’ll just accept it, the bar is that low. Then the target of that complaint is compulsorily required to attend conciliation.”

He said the “big deal” wasn’t the Bible verse “as much as my answer and analysis of the differences between the religions”.

“That obviously was the trigger for them to ask a question and to I guess fish for the offence that they were looking for,” he said.

“And I won’t apologise for preaching the gospel and for saying that false religion has no place beside or integrated with Christianity.”

Mr Pellowe has claimed he is prepared to go to jail to defend his rights, but he conceded to Fordham “I don’t think it’ll come to that”.

“But there will never be a day that I will apologise for preaching the gospel, or pay a penalty imposed by any statutory body for doing so,” he said.

The QHRC has been contacted for comment.

Mr Pellowe had earlier been speaking on ADH TV to host Lyle Shelton, the former head of the ACL who also faced a lengthy vilification complaint brought by two drag queens over comments he made about drag queen story time.

Mr Shelton was cleared by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in August 2023, more than three-and-a-half years after the complaints were first filed.

Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies have become a hot-button issue in recent months, with some high-profile voices including Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price suggesting they have become overused.

Earlier this week, a long-serving Queensland mayor labelled Welcome to Country ceremonies “bulls**t”, telling The Courier-Mail he won’t have them in his council meetings.

“I’ve got a nephew who is Aboriginal, I have other family members who identify as Aboriginal, I grew up with Aboriginal people, I befriended Aboriginal people and that Welcome to Country stuff is all pure bulls**t,” Croydon Shire Mayor Trevor Pickering said.

In November, a council in South Australia sparked a wave of backlash after voting to stop reading an Acknowledgement of Country at meetings.

The Northern Areas Council passed a motion in November without notice “that council delete the Acknowledgement of Country and banner on correspondence”.

Last month, parents at a Sydney primary school revealed that children were being told to put their hands on the ground and repeat “always was, always will be Aboriginal land” as part of the Acknowledgement of Country ceremony before each assembly.

Dr Bella d’Abrera, director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), said it was “an appalling example of activism and division being forced upon our students, but it’s not surprising these ceremonies at schools are becoming more elaborate by the day”.

“While such activities are not mandated in schools, many teachers feel compelled to perform them given that the National Curriculum prioritises Indigenous issues in the classroom, and activists in the education sector push this agenda,” she said.

“There is no place for activism in any classroom in Australia.”

In June, public servants in Queensland attending an awards ceremony were “were asked to take their shoes off, wiggle their toes and close their eyes so they would feel more connected to the earth”, The Courier-Mail reported.

frank.chung@news.com.au