Aussie taxpayers have forked out more than $450,000 in the past two years for government departments to host Welcome to Country ceremonies.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency paid $60,342, the Australian Institute of sport racked up $47,000 and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet spent $41,801 for 33 ceremonies.

Freedom of Information requests provided to the Opposition also show the  Infrastructure Department spent $35,618 on Welcomes while the Industry, Science and Resource Department allocated $30,896 to the ceremonies.

Opposition government waste reduction spokesman James Stevens said the amount spent was staggering. 

‘When added to the enormous amounts state and local governments spend on these ceremonies, it’s become a multimillion-dollar industry,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.

‘Welcomes to Country should be genuine and authentic.

‘Spending millions on ‘Welcome’ ceremonies does nothing to address the challenges facing Indigenous Australians. 

‘This money could be better spent on delivering real solutions to Indigenous communities.’

A Prime Minister and Cabinet spokeswoman defended the amount of money spent on the ceremonies.

She said the expenditure was ‘in line with our Reconciliation Action Plan’ with the plans introduced under a Coalition government in 2015.

‘This has been a longstanding practice for many years,’ she said.

‘All procurement is undertaken in line with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules in order to achieve value for money.’

A Finance Department spokesman, which paid $6,740 for just eight events, also said the money spent ‘demonstrates our commitment to reconciliation’.

‘Inviting a traditional custodian to perform a welcome to country at significant corporate events builds our connection with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,’ he said.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price last month claimed Welcome to Country ceremonies have become a commercial product rather than an expression of culture.

The Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister told Sky News in December there is an ‘Aboriginal industry’ in Australia. 

‘The whole Welcome to Country ceremony has just broadened that industry,’ she said.

‘There are those right around the country, who basically their only role, their only source of income, is delivering Welcome to Country.’

Late last year, the Juru people of the Burdekin in north Queensland voted to ban Welcome to Country ceremonies on their ancestral land.

Juru spokesperson Randall Ross told Melbourne radio station 4BC ‘the elders have had enough’ with the commercialisation of the traditional ceremony.

Mr Ross told host Bill McDonald that some of those performing Welcome to Country were not even connected in any meaningful way to the Burdekin area.

‘Our Welcome to Countries are being not only overused but misused for the wrong purpose,’ he said.

‘We still have people not connected to country doing the ceremonies because they have been identified as preferred suppliers by governments and other agencies.

‘It’s an insult to many of our traditional owners.’