Veteran Indigenous Australian journalist’s racial abuse sparks outcry

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After more than 30 years in the public eye, Australia’s best-known Indigenous journalist has retired from broadcasting after facing racial abuse, sending shockwaves across the country as he prepares for a referendum this year on the sanctioning of indigenous rights in the constitution.

Stan Grant, an author and journalist, has said he will retire from his role presenting a current affairs program on the public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He had received a torrent of abuse for his role in television coverage of the coronation of King Charles III, when he spoke of the effects of colonialism on indigenous peoples.

Grant, a 59-year-old Wiradjuri man, has closed D+Rthe show he hosted for two years, this week with a powerful address to those who had targeted him online.

“If your aim was to hurt me, well, you succeeded,” he said. “I’m sorry that I gave you so many reasons to hate me so much, to target me and my family, to make threats against me,” she said.

The public fallout comes months before a referendum – known as ‘The Voice’ – in which Australians will be asked to vote on whether to amend the constitution to include symbolic recognition of Indigenous peoples and to establish an advisory body on political affairs affecting Indigenous communities .

Grant’s departure has added to tensions over the vote, proposed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government. Recognition of First Nations people, who have long been victims of discrimination and prejudiceit was one of Albanese’s central electoral commitments.

Opposition to the vote, which is expected to take place between October and December, has grown in recent months.

Peter Dutton, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, said he would campaign for a ‘no’ vote, arguing a Canberra-based consultative body would not benefit rural communities.

Albanese said critics were spreading “misinformation” about the referendum, suggesting the advisory body’s mandate might be too broad.

“When ‘no’ activists make these wild claims about what the Voice will be about, I simply tell them – and indeed all Australians following this debate – ‘just for a moment, put yourself in the shoes of the people demanding this change’,” the prime minister said.

Tim Soutphommasane, chief diversity officer at the University of Oxford and previously Australiathe Commissioner for Racial Discrimination, said the uproar around Grant “confirms the challenge that awaits us for the case of ‘yes’ for an indigenous voice. Racism and racial politics threaten to derail the push for constitutional reform.”

Karen Mundine, head of indigenous non-governmental organization Reconciliation Australia, said the scandal arose in a wider context than racial denigration of indigenous sports stars, such as Australian rules football player Adam Goodes. He cited data from the country’s online safety commissioner which showed a 10 per cent increase in complaints of racial abuse online since the start of the referendum campaign.

“These incidents, and the recent racist abuse of several First Nations sports stars, have demonstrated once again that Australia still has a long way to go in building a reconciled and just society,” he said.

The situation triggered a crisis at ABC after Grant accused the broadcaster of “institutional failure” for failing to defend him against racial abuse. ABC staff came out this week in support of the veteran reporter. Station executives apologized to Grant for not stepping in to back him up more quickly.

Justin Stevens, ABC’s news director, told a Senate hearing on racism this week that Grant had become the “public face” of criticism of the station’s coronation coverage despite only being a guest on the 40 segment. minutes, which was part of an eight-hour broadcast.

Stevens said Grant, the author of The queen is deada book about the Crown’s role in colonizing Indigenous Australians, had become a target for “vitriolic abuse” and “toxic and racist” online commentary.

ABC received 1,800 complaints about the segment from viewers, “hundreds” of which were racist in tone, according to ABC chief executive David Anderson. “I am concerned for our First Nations personnel particularly as we head to the Voice to make sure they are sufficiently protected,” he said at the Senate hearing.

Grant concluded his Q+A talk this week with a pointed commentary in print and digital media, which both ABC and Grant have accused of inciting anger at him. He said the media is too often “a poison in our society’s bloodstream” that doesn’t “truly honor a world worth living in.”

“I won’t be leaving for a while because of racism. We get it too often. I’m not walking because of social media hate,” Grant said, concluding his show. “I need a break from media. I feel like I’m part of the problem. Better.