Stan Grant quits ABC’s Q+A over racial abuse

Stan Grant, the high-profile host of chat show Q+A, is stepping down from his on-air role, citing ‘relentless’ racial abuse amid the fallout from the ABC’s heavily-criticised coronation coverage.

ABC host Stan Grant is stepping down from his on-air role, citing ‘relentless’ racial abuse as the primary reason for his departure. Picture: ABC

Stan Grant, the high-profile host of ABC chat show Q+A, is stepping down from his on-air role, citing “relentless” racial abuse as the primary reason for his departure, while expressing “disappointment” in the lack of public support offered to him by the national broadcaster.

In a lengthy reflection posted on the ABC website on Friday afternoon, Grant said he will “walk away” from his Q+A hosting duties after Monday’s program for an indefinite period.

Grant, a Wiradjuri, Gurrawin and Dharawal man, said the fallout from the ABC’s heavily-criticised coverage of the coronation earlier this month had left him “dispirited”.

Grant was part of a panel of guests that, just prior to the coronation of King Charles III on May 6, canvassed the impact of colonisation and the monarchy on Indigenous Australians.

The ABC was swamped with more than 1000 complaints about the coverage.

“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. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure,” Grant said.

“Sadly, it seems there is no place in the media for love, kindness, goodness or God. There is no place in the media for respect. I am sorry that some monarchists were offended at our coverage. That was never my intent. I thought I used words of love. Clearly, I failed. I have to accept I am part of the problem. I am part of the media that fails the Australian people every day.”

During the panel discussion on the evening of the coronation, Grant said there was immense pain felt by First Nations peoples because of colonisation by the British Empire.

“Let’s not imagine that we can just look at this ceremony tonight and see this as something that is distant, that is just ceremonial and doesn’t hold weight,” he said during the broadcast.

“It is scars, it is broken bones and it is too many damaged souls and we need to heal.”

In his column on the ABC website on Friday, Grant said he and his family are “regularly racially mocked or abused” on social media, “and I have had enough”.

“Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted. My wife is targeted with abuse for being married to a Wiradjuri man. I don’t even read it, yet I can’t escape it. People stop me in the street to tell me how vile it is. They tell me how sorry they are,” he said.

“Although I try to shield myself from it, the fact it is out there poisons the air I breathe.”

Earlier this year, Grant said, the ABC lodged an official complaint with Twitter about the racial abuse directed at the Q+A host.

Stan Grant is an admired colleague. The abuse directed at him is disgusting. There are no words adequate to the horror we feel at this. Stan is brilliant and cherished.

— Sarah Ferguson (@FergusonNews) May 19, 2023

On Friday afternoon, after Grant’s column was published, the ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, released a statement: “Over many months, but particularly in recent days, Stan Grant has been subject to grotesque racist abuse, including threats to his safety. This has become particularly virulent since he appeared as part of the ABC’s Coronation coverage.

“It is abhorrent and unacceptable.

“Stan is one of Australia’s best and most respected journalists and broadcasters. The ABC stands by him and condemns the attacks directed towards him. The ABC has and will continue to refer any threats to police.”

The ABC's panel during King Charles III's coronation including co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement Craig Foster, Liberal MP Julian Lesser, presenters Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird and Q+A host Stan Grant on May 6, 2023.

Mr Stevens defended the broadcaster’s coronation coverage, though he said it was “regrettable” that “some viewers” had been upset by the timing of the panel discussion about the role of the monarchy in Australia in the context of Indigenous history.

“The responsibility for the coverage lies with ABC News management, not with Stan Grant. “Yet it is he who has borne the brunt of a tirade of criticism, particularly in the usual sections of the media that target the ABC.

“Reporting on his contribution to the panel discussion has been unfair, inaccurate and irresponsible.

“It has contributed to fuelling horrendous personal and racial abuse. Any complaints, criticism – or vitriol – regarding the coverage should be directed to me, not to him.”

The Australian has sought further comment from the ABC.