Walkley Foundation apologises for ‘racist views’ held by founder and oil boss Sir William Gaston Walkley

The organisers of prestigious media awards have apologised for its founder’s views and it will review sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies.

The 2022 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism trophies. Source: Instagram, July 2022.

The organisers of the nation’s most prestigious media awards, the Walkleys, have issued an apology for “racist views” held by the event’s founder and oil baron from more than 60 years ago.

They are also reviewing sponsorship arrangements with fossil fuel companies because of climate change concerns.

The Walkley Foundation said it “condemned and expressed deep regret” for views that were written by Sir William Gaston Walkley in a newspaper column in 1961 and they did not align with its “ethical organisation”.

The apology comes after a column was published in Nine Entertainment’s Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday saying Sir William held racist views and after numerous cartoonists and journalists said they would boycott this year’s Walkley Awards because of the event’s ties to Ampol, a fossil fuel company, which is also a platinum sponsor of the event.

A statement issued on Saturday night by The Walkley Foundation’s board of directors said Sir Williams’s viewers did not align with the Foundation.

“His views do not reflect the values, views and ethics of the Walkley Foundation,” the statement said.

“We apologise for the deep hurt and offence these statements will have caused for journalists and the broader community.

“As an ethical organisation, we must call out the mistakes of the past.”

The weekend SMH column, written by culture editor Osman Faruqi, explained that New Zealand-born Sir William was “one of Australia’s most popular oil barons” and had written about his concerns that Australia was “underpopulated and under-developed’’.

Faruqi referred to a column Sir Wiliam wrote in the SMH in April 1961 that claimed Australia could “cease to become a white man’s country”.

In recent days many cartoonists have withdrawn their awards entries after Jon Kudelka, also a cartoonist, wrote in an online post that he was not entering because Sir William had started Ampol and he was concerned about climate change.

“The guts of it is that Ampol, a well known fossil fuel company, is a sponsor of the Walkleys and in other events there was a revamp of the awards categories recently to make them more in line with modern times and while there was a call for climate reporting to have its own award category, it didn’t make the cut,” Kudelka wrote.

“I know that Australia is a very small place and only the impotent are pure etc, but climate change is an actual existential crisis and the media have to play their part and ruthlessly interrogate why the hell real cuts to fossil fuel use aren’t happening urgently,” he wrote.

Among those to withdraw their Walkley entries were Fiona Katauskas, David Blumenstein and Glen Le Lievre, while Matt Golding, David Rowe and First Dog on The Moon said they would not enter.

Entries closed on Thursday.

The Walkley Awards were founded by Sir William in 1956 and the 68th awards will be held on November 23.

The board also said it was reviewing its sponsorship policy and details of this would be announced soon.

“The foundation has a responsibility to show leadership in the journalism community,” the board said.

“It will continue to pursue excellence in all its activities and actions to ensure they reflect a modern and diverse Australia.”