Stan Grant steps away from Referendum Council post

Stan Grant has stepped away from membership of the Referendum Council to avoid any conflict of interest.

Stan Grant has stepped away from membership of the Referendum Council currently holding consultations nationwide because he wants to avoid any conflict of interest.

The 16-member council was jointly appointed by Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten in ­December 2015 with a brief to ­devise “next steps” towards a ­referendum on indigenous consti­tutional recognition.

Grant was appointed last April to fill the gap created after co-chairman Patrick Dodson resigned to become a Labor senator for Western Australia.

The council, with a two-year budget of $9.3 million, is running a series of 12 indigenous “dialogues” around the nation, with the sixth to begin tomorrow in western Sydney. These will culminate with an indigenous constitutional convention at Uluru at the end of May to coincide with the 50th ­anniversary of the referendum on federal powers with regard to ­indigenous Australians.

A report to the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader is expected by June 30.

Grant, who joined the ABC in October as indigenous affairs ­editor and presents the Friday magazine-style show The Link on ABC1, said he felt compromised.

“After I joined the ABC, I thought, look, there was a danger of a conflict of interest in being on a council that I’m potentially going to be reporting on at a ­national level, so at that point I ­decided not to attend any meetings. I didn’t want to put myself … or other people in a compromising position,” he said.

“It’s not a resignation as such. (I) felt being at the ABC and on that council, particularly when things are getting down to community meetings and things like that, that I could potentially compromise myself or I could compromise other people by knowing things that I can’t report or reporting things that I do know that are confidential. So I just thought I can’t do this.”