‘Hurtful’: School boycotts national anthem

A Melbourne school has doubled down on its decision not to sing the Australian national anthem at an awards ceremony on Monday night, with the principal saying Advance Australia Fair “may well be” finished in the long term.

Instead of the national anthem, attendees of Overnewton Anglican Community College’s presentation night, held at Southbanks’s Hamer Hall, sang Aunty Ruby Hunter’s Welcome to All People after students objected to the former on the grounds it was offensive to Indigenous Australians.

Overnewton principal Jim Laussen said there was a “growing number” of students at the school who refused to sing the national anthem.

Speaking on Melbourne radio, Mr Laussen said the college captain announced the decision not to sing the national anthem, a trend the school began during this year’s Reconciliation Week, where students asked not to sing the national anthem out of respect for Indigenous Australians speaking at school assemblies that week.

Mr Laussen said the decision to reject the national anthem was a decision students had come to themselves and it “may well be finished” in the long term.

He said the school had about 11 Indigenous pupils who objected to Advance Australia Fair, and he had spoken to a parent who objected to the school’s decision.

“If we had not even mentioned we weren’t doing the national anthem, no one would have cared because no one would have noticed,” Mr Laussen said.

He said Indigenous parents had objected to “deeply hurtful” words contained in the national anthem.

Mr Laussen said the school, which continued to sing the national anthem from time to time, was “creating a conversation and a dialogue” and many people had congratulated him over the school’s decision.

Last year, the lyrics “For we are young and free” in Advance Australia Fair were changed to “For we are one and free”.