I couldn't believe what happened at the opening of Australia's War Memorial

What should have been a proud national moment became a sobering reminder of just how far Canberra has drifted from the people it claims to represent.

On Tuesday I attended the opening of the newly renovated and expanded Australian War Memorial.

The project cost Australian taxpayers around half a billion dollars.

Normally when government spends that kind of money you expect a monument to waste, inefficiency and bureaucratic self-congratulation. But I must say, on this occasion, I was pleasantly surprised. The memorial is magnificent. It is a fitting tribute to those Australians who served and sacrificed for this nation.

What a pity the opening ceremony was not. What should have been a solemn and unifying occasion quickly descended into farce. Those gathered to honour our war dead were forced to endure a Welcome to Country that seemed to go on forever. It felt to be around 15 minutes long.

Curiously, the Welcome to Country was delivered by a man introduced to those assembled as an Aboriginal elder but who appeared about as indigenous as a Scandinavian ski instructor.

His monologue on the rightness of Indigenous culture went on….and on…..and on.

What was billed as a welcome increasingly felt like a humiliation ritual. Everyone assembled was expected to nod along and enthusiastically agree that they were on someone else’s land, and second class citizens at that.

I eventually gave up and walked outside. Life is finite.

There are only so many minutes a person can sacrifice to the ideological theatre so enjoyed by self-flagellating lefties before self-preservation, not to mention self-respect, kicks in.

But as if all of that wasn’t bad enough….then came the truly astonishing part….

At the opening of Australia’s War Memorial - a memorial built to honour Australians who fought, bled and died for this country - they didn’t play the Australian national anthem.

Think about that.

A ceremony to open the newly renovated Australian War Memorial began with a tribute to Indigenous Australians but completely skipped the National Anthem.

Our diggers, the men who died for us, are rolling in their graves.

The whole unfortunate charade was the perfect symbol of modern Canberra, a political class so consumed by fashionable ideology that it increasingly struggles to recognise the nation it’s supposed to represent.

The opening of the beautifully renovated War Memorial was a classic illustration of what so many Australians already know. Canberra isn’t merely out of touch. It’s completely broken.

That’s why the Albanese Government must go and the weak woke Coalition must be banished to history.

Only then can the important work of salvaging what remains of our country begin.

Senator Ralph Babet, Senator for Victoria, United Australia Party.