Mood sinks at the ABC as Stan Grant exits after ‘grotesque racist abuse’

ABC boss David Anderson has apologised to Q+A host Stan Grant, who announced his departure from the broadcaster on Friday after a sustained campaign of abuse mounted against him over his commentary during the ABC’s coverage of the coronation of King Charles III.

In an email to staff late Sunday afternoon, Anderson maintained that Grant has “always had” the “full support” of leadership at the ABC, even as executives remained silent on the racist abuse levelled at him.

“Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported. For this, I apologise to Stan. The ABC endeavours to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when there is external abuse directed at them,” Anderson wrote.

For some corners of the organisation, the ABC’s failure to offer Grant full-throated support until Sunday struck at the heart of his reasons for leaving. Sources in the Melbourne and Sydney newsrooms told Crikey that Grant’s departure had lowered morale, particularly among those staff who hail from culturally diverse backgrounds. Staff are expected to gather in the foyer of the ABC’s Ultimo office around 2:30pm on Monday afternoon in a show of solidarity with Grant, sources say.

Grant announced his departure in his weekly column on the ABC’s website on Friday. He said that since appearing on the coronation panel he had seen “people in the media lie and distort” his words, and had faced surging racial abuse on social media, directed at both him and his wife.

“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. “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 went on to give an honorary mention to ABC director of news Justin Stevens, who the Q+A host said has been a source of “support and comfort”. He said Stevens was trying to change the broadcaster despite its “legacy of racism”: “But he knows I am disappointed. I am dispirited.”

The sustained conservative media campaign included more than 150 mentions of the ABC’s coronation coverage in the pages of The Australian and on Sky News over the past fortnight. Early last week The Australian reported news of an ombudsman investigation into the coronation coverage after the ABC had received complaints claiming it was in breach of editorial guidelines.

The reports forced the broadcaster to demur and concede that it was taking the complaints seriously, even if reports of an “informal review” conducted by Stevens and Anderson were overplayed.

In his email to staff, Anderson said the ABC was “never above scrutiny or criticism”, but that “anti-ABC reporting” from some media outlets had grown “sustained and vitriolic”.

The ABC’s coverage of the coronation was led by a panel hosted by Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird, along with Grant. Indigenous writer and lawyer Teela Reid was another guest, alongside monarchist and Liberal Party backbencher Julian Leeser, and Craig Foster, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement.

The panel discussed the role of the monarchy in modern Australia and the consequences of colonialism for Indigenous Australians and was broadcast for some 45 minutes before the ABC took the BBC’s live feed.

Shortly after Grant announced he’d step back from his role as host of Q+A, Stevens released a statement urging critics to direct their complaints at him, not Grant.

“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,” Stevens said on Friday.

Stevens said Grant was only one of a range of panellists on the broadcaster’s May 6 coronation panel, and that he was “not the instigator” of the coverage, but instead was asked to participate “as a Wiradjuri man to discuss his own family’s” lived experience.

“It is part of the ABC’s role to facilitate such important conversations, however confronting and uncomfortable, and to reflect the diversity of perspectives.”

Anderson has since accepted a recommendation from the ABC’s Bonner committee to launch a review of how the ABC responds to racism directed at staff, and what more it can do to offer institutional support. The Bonner committee, the broadcaster’s peak body for issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and content, said it would push for the review to be led by an independent expert alongside the committee and all other staff representation groups.

The committee chair, ABC Voice correspondent Dan Bourchier, said in a statement on Sunday that Grant had been a “major shaping force” both in the broader media and for him personally. Grant had “been an ally, mentor, mate and supporter” who helped him to navigate challenging times of his own in Australian media, and welcomed Anderson’s decision to take up the Bonner committee’s request to launch a review: “We see this as an important next step in addressing the treatment some of our colleagues are facing.”

Until then, Monday evening’s Q+A program will be Grant’s last before he walks away. The ABC is understood to be in the final stages of confirming his interim replacement.