<text>  One of Australias leading country musicians has claimed that Prime Minister Tony Abbotts recent lifestyle choices comment put race relations back 100 years. Speaking on ABCs QA programme Troy Cassar-Daley, the son of a Maltese-Australian father and an Aboriginal mother, blasted Mr Abbott for backing a plan in Western Australia to close more than 100 remote communities and move more than 1,000 people. What we cant do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices, Mr Abbott controversially said. It was a remark that angered the Indigenous musician. Scroll down for video . Australian country singer Troy Cassar-Daley could not hide his shock and anger on ABCs QA programme . The Indigenous musician was reacting to Prime Minister Tony Abbotts comment about living on remote communities being a lifestyle choice . Lifestyle choices, wow, what a comment it took race relations back a hundred years, Cassar-Daley said. It really did. To be spiritually connected to the land you live on is not a lifestyle choice. You are part of that country and you want to live your life the way your ancestors did. Maybe take your kids into the bush and show them how to hunt. But if youre in a welfare cycle its very hard to break from it. But if these people are being displaced again from land it would just be destroying them. It destroys culture. What other option do they have? Casser-Daly believed that being spiritually connected to the land you live on is not a lifestyle choice Assistant Minister for Health, Fiona Nash, listens on as Cassar-Daley reacts to Mr Abbotts comments on ABCs QA programme . Do they go into town and get into trouble and become a burden there to the police force and everyone else? Or are they allowed to stay on the country where their spirit is happiest? Assistant Minister for Health, Fiona Nash, was also appearing on the programme. She was asked if what the Prime Minister had said was a hard phrase to defend, to which she replied: Its probably not a phrase I would have used. Cassar-Daley believed that Western Australia was such a mineral rich place, that the mining companies could help these communities and give them a reason to stay on the land. The optimum goal should be to keep these people in these communities, he said. Tony Abbots lifestyle choices comment came in for huge criticism from Indigenous leaders . The multi-award-winning country musician from to Grafton in north-eastern New South Wales, was worried that the Prime Minster may got these ideas from a focus group. These people havent been out into the regions to see how these people live, they havent seen how happy the kids are, he said. They havent seen the power of the elders being able to sit down in their own environment and impart stuff to these kids. That cant happen on city streets. To me its a criminal act to take people off land again and push them aside like theyre not wanted. The singer also said hed also like to know what the government in Western Australia wanted to do with that land anyway. The multi-award-winning country musician believed that every effort should be made to keep the people in these Western Australia communities . The Prime Ministers contentious life choices comment was aimed at people living in remote places that are not self-sufficient or self-sustaining. Many were angered by his remarks that governments could not endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices. Mr Abbott tried to clarify this by saying he was focused on the practical impacts of living in remote settlements such as access to schooling, jobs and services. Cassar-Daley right explains to the QA panel why he thinks Mr Abbotts remarks were out of line . Mr Abbott said he was focused on the practical impacts of living in remote settlements such as access to schooling, jobs and services . If you or I chose to live in a very remote place, to what extent is the taxpayer obliged to subsidise our services? he said. His comments still came in for huge criticism from Indigenous leaders and commentators across the country, however. 