Rita Panahi: Channel 10’s woke Australia Day stance insult to Indigenous people

Australia Day remains a day of celebration for many, so why must woke media activists focus on demonising January 26?

Every year the war against Australia Day — waged by activists, the media and increasingly the corporate sector — intensifies, and yet the majority of Australians remain supportive of the national day remaining on January 26.

And, as the loud minority continue to agitate for a date change, they ignore and distract from far more consequential issues afflicting indigenous communities.

Just this week we saw these two headlines on Sky News Australia’s website: “NT man who raped 12-year-old girl — causing her to become pregnant — eligible for parole less than four months after he is convicted of the offence” and “NT teenager who raped seven-year-old girl while on parole for arson to be released less than two months after being convicted”.

The headlines are bad enough but the details are even more grim.

It’s hard not to feel thoroughly depressed after reading about the devastating cycle of abuse and the lenient sentencing such horrific crimes can attract. Let’s be honest, if the victims were blonde, blue-eyed children in Sydney or Melbourne these cases would lead every news service for days. And, there’d be widespread outrage about the manifestly inadequate sentences handed to the offenders.

A Roy Morgan poll this year found two in three people wanted Australia Day to remain on January 26.

We know the rates of abuse and neglect for indigenous children is markedly higher than non-Indigenous kids, and we know that indigenous women are 3000 per cent more likely to be hospitalised due to domestic violence.

Yes, 3000 per cent — more than 30 times — that is not a misprint but a shameful fact ignored by media, celebrity and corporate activists who every year push their divisive anti-Australia Day rhetoric, supposedly for the benefit of Aboriginal people.

They prefer to focus on Australia Day, the anthem, the flag — anything but the consequential issues that could save lives.

You won’t hear the head honchos at Channel 10 bringing attention to what really matters; they’d rather focus on demonising Australia Day.

The low rating free-to-air network – home of programs like The Project, The Real Love Boat and other quality fare like “10 News First Breakfast” which earlier this year set a record for the worst-rated program in Australian TV history with just 44 viewers in Sydney— is effectively banning Australia Day.

Ten’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey panned Australia Day in an internal note to programming and editorial staff last week; in fact she finds the national holiday so objectionable she refuses to call it by its name, referring to it simply as “January 26”.

In the note, co-signed by the network’s chief commercial officer Jarrod Villani, the Ten boss wrote: “We aim to create a safe place to work where cultural differences are appreciated, understood and respected ... For our First Nations people, we as an organisation acknowledge that January 26 is not a day of celebration.”

Really? This woman seeks to speak for all indigenous Australians, even those who proudly celebrate Australia Day and do not buy the activist narrative. How patronising and utterly vapid; no wonder the network makes one poor decision after another.

The email continues: “Whether you choose to work on January 26 or take the public holiday, we ask that you reflect and respect the different perspectives and viewpoints of all Australians.”

How about Ten bosses reflect on holding a fringe position that is at odds with the overwhelming majority of Australians. In reporting the Ten news, the activist media were quick to quote a mickey-mouse poll taken in the City of Melbourne that showed 59.8 per cent favoured a date change, but that poll is a clear outlier.

Most polls show a majority back the national holiday and want it to remain on January 26, including one published by Deakin University this year and polls by Roy Morgan, CoreData and others commissioned by news organisations.

An Invasion Day protest in Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled

The Roy Morgan poll this year found two in three wanted Australia Day to remain on January 26.

But Ten has decided to stand with the fringe-dwelling self-loathers, not the mainstream, which included Premier Dan Andrews, who cautioned local council against their anti-Australia Day positions.

“I think we can respectfully acknowledge our past, but also come together and celebrate what modern Australia is all about,” he said.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had these sage words of advice for the corporate elite who seek to speak for the indigenous community.

“I’m sick to death of all these privileged individuals who have decided they know what’s best for us and who assume that as a group ... indigenous Australians all think the same and see ourselves as victims,” she said.

“It’s really denigrating, it removes our agency and it suggests of course that they know what’s best for us and our needs. It’s disgusting; I’m done with it.”

One would take Ten’s corporate virtue signalling more seriously if it devoted some energy to adequately cover the devastating stories of child sexual abuse and domestic violence in remote communities.

But as Senator Price said this week, the media-activist class prefer to “push the woke agenda” rather than cover the substantial issues facing indigenous communities.