ABC’s racism review yet to start consultations despite being announced nine months ago
The ABC’s review into the way it handles racism is yet to start consultations with staff, despite the inquiry being announced as a top priority nine months ago.
The ABC’s review into the way it handles racism is yet to start consultations with staff, despite the inquiry being announced as a top priority nine months ago.
The review was announced in May after an outcry over Stan Grant’s contentious comments on the ABC’s coverage of the King’s coronation and his subsequent claims that the media organisation failed to adequately support him when he was targeted with online abuse.
At the time, the ABC said it would “investigate and make recommendations about the ABC’s racism affecting staff”.
Five months later, Indigenous lawyer Terri Janke was appointed to head the review, but last week ABC boss David Anderson was forced to concede consultations with staff still had not started.
Indigenous businessman Warren Mundine said on Sunday that it should have taken only a “few weeks” to get the review up and running.
“It’s not good enough, it’s something which should have been done (by now) and yet they wait months before anything is done,” he said.
Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the long time to start consultations was “disappointing but not surprising”.
“Just another reason fewer and fewer Australians are trusting the activist ABC,” she said.
The issue of internal racism flared again in December after the sacking of fill-in radio host Antoinette Lattouf, who is of Lebanese descent.
She alleges ABC staff who identify as “people of colour” are treated poorly within the media organisation, and has lodged a claim of unfair dismissal in the Fair Work Commission, saying she was dumped because of her race.
Grant, a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man, left the ABC in August after 40 years in journalism and was critical of the ABC before his departure, hitting out at management and colleagues in a column for failing to support him.
“I am writing this because no one at the ABC – whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest – has uttered one word of public support,” he wrote.
Grant also said news director Justin Stevens was “trying to change an organisation that has its own legacy of racism”.
Grant was contacted for comment last week but did not respond.
The ABC’s racism review was suggested by the chair and deputy chair of the Bonner Committee, the ABC’s primary advisory and representative body on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, and it was approved by Mr Anderson.
It is chaired by Indigenous journalist Dan Bourchier who headed up the ABC’s voice coverage. Last year, Bourchier revealed his personal battles with racism inside the ABC.
He said on Insiders last year that he was reluctant to go on programs, including political shows such as Insiders, because he felt that he received invitations to appear only because he was a “diversity pick.”
In a radio interview on the ABC last week, Mr Anderson said there was still a lot of work to be done on the review.
“There’s the Dr Terri Janke review that is under way at the moment and consultations will start in February and March,” he said.
“That is to look at what support we provide people who might experience racism at any level, because we need to stamp that out.”
Dr Janke, a Wuthathi, Yadhaighana and Meriam woman, was a strong advocate for the Yes vote in last year’s failed referendum, posting numerous images of herself on social media wearing a “Vote Yes” T-shirt while holding a sign “history is calling, vote YES for a First Nations Voice”.
An ABC spokesman said: “Dr Janke is widely respected and the ABC is grateful to have a leader of her calibre, knowledge and experience leading the independent review into ABC systems and processes in support of staff who experience racism.
The Australian contacted Dr Janke about her social media posts and within hours her X and Instagram accounts were closed to the public.
She has since deleted her posts about the voice and did not respond to questions.
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