Top accounting executive in trouble after refusing to deliver Acknowledgement of Country
BDO Australia, one of the country's largest accounting and audit firms, has launched an internal investigation after a senior partner made derogatory remarks about the Acknowledgement of Country while addressing a national staff town hall. The unnamed executive declined to deliver the customary acknowledgement during his welcome address, prompting a guest speaker to give his own instead. The episode has embarrassed the firm, unsettled staff and reignited a wider national debate over the role of such ceremonies in Australian public life.
The comments were made in July at a town hall for BDO's projects and infrastructure advisory group, broadcast nationally from Sydney, with Infrastructure Australia chief commissioner Tim Reardon and two colleagues attending as guests. Reardon delivered his own Acknowledgement of Country after the partner, who is currently on leave overseas, omitted one — despite the practice featuring on every page of BDO's website. Chief executive partner David Garvey said he was "deeply disappointed" and that the remarks were "unacceptable" and inconsistent with the firm's values, confirming the individual has since accepted his conduct was inappropriate as the investigation continues. The row follows recent controversy in federal parliament, where three One Nation senators turned their backs during an Acknowledgement of Country, and leader Pauline Hanson's pledge to scrap Welcome to Country ceremonies if elected in 2028.
- BDO Australia investigates partner over Acknowledgement of Country comments
- Guest speaker had to deliver the acknowledgement instead
- Incident echoes wider political debate over such ceremonies
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The Acknowledgement of Country is a short statement recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land, commonly delivered at the start of meetings and public events in Australia. It has become standard practice at many workplaces and institutions, alongside the related but distinct Welcome to Country, which is delivered by a local Indigenous person or elder. Both have become a routine, if sometimes contested, part of Australian public life.
BDO Australia is one of the country's largest accounting and audit firms. The dispute centres on a senior partner at the firm who, while addressing staff at a national town hall meeting, declined to give the customary acknowledgement and made critical comments about it instead. This prompted a visiting guest to deliver an acknowledgement in his place, and the firm's leadership has since said it was unhappy with what was said.
The episode matters because it touches on a broader and recurring debate in Australia about the place of Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country ceremonies, with some public figures and politicians questioning their necessity while others defend them as an important form of recognition. Similar disagreements have recently played out elsewhere, including in federal parliament, making this workplace incident part of a wider national conversation rather than an isolated dispute.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the firm's response argue that an Acknowledgement of Country is a modest, well-established gesture of respect for the traditional custodians of the land, and that a senior leader publicly disparaging it in a professional setting reflects poorly on the organisation and its stated commitment to reconciliation and inclusion. They contend that employers have a legitimate interest in setting standards of conduct for those who represent them publicly, particularly executives whose words carry institutional weight, and that failing to act would send a troubling message to Indigenous staff, clients and the wider public. For many, honouring this custom costs little and signals genuine respect for Australia's First Nations history and ongoing presence.
The case against
Others sympathetic to the executive's position hold that Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies, however well-intentioned in origin, have in some settings become an obligatory ritual expected in contexts with no direct connection to Indigenous affairs, and that individuals should not face professional censure for declining to perform what they see as a symbolic gesture rather than a substantive commitment. They worry that treating such omissions as serious workplace breaches pressures people to publicly affirm views or customs they may privately question, and that this risks conflating genuine reconciliation with enforced conformity, narrowing space for honest debate about the ceremony's meaning and place in corporate life.