Professor Marcia Langton (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
Professor Marcia Langton (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Last Wednesday, Professor Marcia Langton addressed the National Press Club with a stark warning: Don’t imagine that there’s another opportunity around the corner, don’t think your No vote goes into a different pile marked “next time”. At one point, her voice audibly wavering with emotion, she implored the media to “not participate in pile-ons”.

One week later, comments she’d made at a forum hosted by Edith Cowan University were taken out of context and quickly dominated News Corp headlines. It didn’t take long for her then to become the key attack figure of Coalition talking points and social media posts.

Crikey lays out a chronology of the pile-on of Professor Langton.

Wednesday, September 6, 2023: Professor Marcia Langton, a prominent advocate for the Yes vote in the upcoming referendum concerning the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, addresses the National Press Club in Canberra. During her address, she calls on the media to “lift their game” and to “not participate in pile-ons on persons who are good and decent people”.

Sunday, September 10: Addressing a forum in Bunbury, 175 kms south of Perth, Langton says the following about the arguments of the No campaign: “Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart, you get down to base racism. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s where it lands — or just sheer stupidity.”

Tuesday, September 12: The Bunbury Herald, a free weekly paper published by Seven West Media, puts Langton’s comments on its front page under the headline “RACIST OR JUST STUPID”. The opening paragraph reads: “Voice to Parliament No voters are siding with either ‘racism’ or ‘stupidity’, Professor Marcia Langton told a referendum forum in Bunbury on Sunday.”

(Image: The Bunbury Herald)

At time of writing, the story remains online, under the headline “Professor Marcia Langton AO says No Voice to Parliament voters are siding with ‘racism’ or ‘stupidity’”.

The story is picked up by The Australian‘s national affairs editor Joe Kelly, and run online under the headline “No voters branded ‘racist and stupid’ by prominent Yes campaigner”.

(Image: The Australian)

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton incorporates the headline into a social media post, featuring an image of Langton with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Dutton calls on Albanese to condemn Langton:

(Image: Peter Dutton/Facebook)

The Australian’s piece is published just before Tuesday’s question time and dominates the opposition’s questions to the government. Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley asks Indigenous Minister Linda Burney:

Moments before question time, The Australian and the Bunbury Herald reported Professor Marcia Langton has accused No voters of opposing the referendum because of ‘base racism or sheer stupidity’. Will the minister for Indigenous Australians condemn Professor Langton’s comments?

This is the final sitting week before the October 14 vote on the Voice.

Sky News runs “exclusive” footage of Langton’s comments.

Nine papers’ chief political correspondent David Crowe tweets “I’ve listened to the audio of Marcia Langton in WA and she does *not* call voters racist or stupid”. He writes a follow-up piece under the headline “Marcia Langton denies calling No voters racist“.

Sometime on Tuesday afternoon, The Australian alters the headline of its original article to “Claims made by No Campaign based on racism, stupidity: Marcia Langton”.

Wednesday, September 13: Langton appears on ABC RN and says she has been misrepresented, claiming Kelly didn’t approach her for comment before running the piece.

The Australian dedicates its front page to Langton. Under the headline “‘Base racism’: Yes leader in no-holds-barred call”, the Oz writes that “Linda Burney has been forced to intervene and call for care and respect from both sides” after Langton’s comments. It goes on to state that after the comments, “race became a central feature of the campaign” on Tuesday.

Also on the front page is commentary from political editor Simon Benson arguing the saga represented a test of Albanese’s character:

… as one of the more prominent advocates, Langton’s comments inevitably will be conflated with an argument that this is a view implicitly shared by the government. Albanese will need to distance himself from this suggestion.

Further, there is a pointer to a relatively sympathetic piece from Indigenous Affairs correspondent Paige Taylor:

Professor Langton’s life’s work has been a public service yet she is sometimes written off as an elite. It is lazy, easy politicking but Professor Langton lives in a capital city and has a big job title with letters after her name.

This is a gift for those who hate what she stands for.

Professor Langton says the majority of Australians are not racist. But after decades in the public square, she is confident she recognises racism when she sees it.

Sky News runs footage, from July of this year, of Langton describing a portion of the “hard No vote” as “spewing racism”. Her full comment is:

The surge of racist nonsense is confined to a minority of Australians. Ordinary Australians are thinking Yes. Of course I am voting for the Voice and that would be 48-49%. Then there is hard No voters and I am hoping they are about 20% and they are the ones spewing racism.

Thursday, September 14: In a piece marked “exclusive” and headlined “Langton has form in ‘racism’ attacks“, the Oz reprints sections of a 2018 piece from The Saturday Paper that Langton penned on No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her mother, Bess, also a politician, particularly highlighting the following passage:

It is important to communicate with all Australians on this issue, as I have a number of times myself, but speaking at the Bennelong Society or the Centre for Independent Studies to the exclusion of other organisations raises the suspicion that Bess and Jacinta have become the useful coloured help in rescuing the racist image of these conservative outfits.

The piece restates her Bunbury comments, and references the “20% spewing racism” figure from the earlier Sky News story. Next to the piece is a graphic with a series of quotes from Langton in which she has referred to various groups or systems as racist:

(Image: The Australian)

Friday, September 15: Sussan Ley appears on Sunrise, alongside Labor’s Education Minister Jason Clare, and repeats the 20% figure, now narrowed to 22%:

In fact, Marcia Langton, a co-architect of the Voice, part of the Referendum Working Group, has called 22% of Australia’s deeply racist … Unfortunately, neither the Prime Minister nor the [Indigenous Affairs] minister stepped back from those claims and I think they really should have removed Marcia Langton from that group in the interest of us coming together.

But that’s why this Voice is so divisive. Led by a prime minister who has a rushed timeline, insisted that everyone has to vote Yes, is surrounded by people who he is backing in that are saying that Australians are racist and that at the heart of the arguments for No is racism [and] stupidity.
That’s why we got so angry this week. But I absolutely know that when we go into our communities, we will find Australians desperate for the detail.

And I want to know, Jason, do you think that 22% of Australians are deeply racist?

Clare replies, “No, of course I don’t. I don’t at all. I think Australians are good, honest and fair.”

At the time of writing, Dutton’s post remains up, unaltered.

Has Marcia Langton been unfairly targeted? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.