Late last week Victorian Premier, The Hon Ted Baillieu, announced that he will not compel any of his government’s ministers or public servants to make the traditional welcome and acknowledgement of indigenous landowners at public events. The Premier believes the act was dictatorial under the former Labor government and served nothing more than lip service. The move has been passionately scorned – and welcomed – and now poses some fundamental questions: are these acknowledgements mere tokenistic acts or do they serve a meaningful purpose? State Minister for Aboriginal Affairs & Reconciliation, The Honourable Grace Portolesi, spoke to Jess Wingard this morning, and Jess asked her if the traditional acknowledgement was tokenistic.
