Pauline Hanson doco, Eurovision entry and drama about gay hate crimes dominate SBS’s 2016 line-up

A DOCO about firebrand politician Pauline Hanson, a drama about Sydney’s gay hate crime epidemic and another tilt at the Eurovision crown — this is SBS’s plan for 2016.

GUY SEBASTIAN DEBUT AT EUROVISION

ANOTHER tilt at the Eurovision crown, a documentary about Pauline Hanson’s enduring influence, and a cross-platform look at Sydney’s shameful gay hate crime epidemic in the 1980s and ’90s form the foundation of SBS’s programming line-up next year.

The broadcaster today announced a significant investment in local content and event television, including 24 new Australian documentary commissions, two dramas and five food shows.

And much like this year, much of the slate of shows in 2016 is bound to get viewers talking.

“Audiences can expect engaging programs that explore and celebrate the people and stories of modern multicultural Australia in a way that no other media company can,” SBS managing director Michael Ebeid said.

Twenty years after the firebrand politician gave her maiden speech in Parliament, Hanson: The Years That Shook The Nation will probe how her extreme and often divisive views influenced race discourse — and continue to shape discourse.

Polarising figure ... SBS will air a documentary about Pauline Hanson, 20 years after her memorable maiden speech to Parliament.

SBS also announced a groundbreaking cross-platform, cross-genre special event called Deep Water, delving into the gay hate crimes that plagued Sydney’s coastline. A number of men were murdered or assaulted in a spate of attacks that remain unsolved.

Deep Water will comprise a four-part drama series, a feature documentary and an online prequel series.

Comedy viewing ... The Family Law promises a quirky and hilarious look at a Chinese-Australian clan.

It will join new scripted comedy series The Family Law, written by author Benjamin Law and based on his critically acclaimed memoir of the same name.

The broadcaster promises a “funny, frank and fearless” glimpse inside the dysfunctional world of a heartwarming Chinese-Australian clan.

We’re back ... SBS has announced that Australia will once again compete in the Eurovision Song Contest next year.

SBS has also confirmed it will send an Australian artist to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm during May next year.

The performer, who will be announced next year, will enter the competition in the semi-finals.

Australia competed as a “wildcard” entry in 2015 — billed at the time as a “one off” — but after last year’s strong showing host Julia Zemiro suggested that strong Australian voting could help convince organisers to offer Australia another shot.

“If Australia put in quite a lot of voting (the organisers) might consider it,” Zemiro told reporters at Vienna’s Stadthalle arena.

“But really I don’t think they know. The script is being written.”

Missing from the programming announcement though was any word about a follow up to this year’s controversial doco Struggle Street, which profiled families in the western Sydney pocket of Mount Druitt, and saw mass protests in the lead up to its debut earlier this year.

Controversy ... Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali addresses media outside SBS at Artarmon before the debut of Struggle Street.

After a ratings boom, there was talk of a new instalment in the works. A spokeswoman said the network was “in preliminary stages of research and yet to decide” on a second season.

However other new documentaries coming in 2016 will include Vietnam: The War That Made Australia, which charts the course of the men who lived, fought and died in the most hostile war zone of the modern era, and Untold Australia, a four-part series exploring the hidden worlds of multiculturalism.

Acclaimed journalist Ray Martin is back to host a second season of the Logie Award-winning First Contact, and will take six well-known Aussies with strong views on a unique journey into Aboriginal Australia.

Viewers can also look forward to Shaun Micallef’s Stairway to Heaven, as he continues his mission to unravel extreme belief systems, as well as an eighth season of Who Do You Think You Are?

A group of celebrities from Ian Thorpe to Ernie Dingo will also lend their genetic make-up for DNA Nation, taking them on a journey to unlock their ancestral pasts.

There’s a new prime time, agenda-driven news show coming to NITV, The Point with Stan Grant, that begins in February, and a weekly sport series League Nation Live, hosted by retired Broncos captain Justin Hodges.

Inside look ... new documentary Inside Heston’s World comes to SBS in 2016.

On the food front, Heston Blumenthal gives a fly-on-the-wall look at how he transported his famed Fat Duck restaurant from the UK to Australia earlier this year, in the three-part observational doco Inside Heston’s World.

A host of familiar faces are also back, including MasterChef alums Poh Ling Yeow for Poh & Co and Adam Liaw for Destination Flavour Scandinavia.

Those swag of significant investments in food programming comes on the back of SBS’s recently announced new dedicated channel Food Network, which launches today.