Stan Grant criticizes Australian television for being too white, as our local shows are called a “neo-Nazi wet dream.”
- The Q+A host criticized the lack of diversity on screen
- Guest called local TV a ‘neo-Nazi wet dream’
A guest on ABC’s Q+A called Australian television a “neo-Nazi wet dream” after indigenous presenter Stan Grant criticized it for being dominated by white faces.
Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf, whose parents moved Down Under from Lebanon in the 1970s, criticized the networks for being stuck in the era of 1960s White Australia politics.
Lattouf lashed out at the portrayal of multicultural Australia on major local television shows, saying it now lags far behind the rest of the world.
“Australia is way behind the UK or the US,” he raged on the Monday night show.
‘We still have networks or programs that seem like a neo-Nazi’s wet dream. We still do it despite the fact that more than half the population is culturally diverse.
“(But) we’re just going to ignore those voices.”
ABC’s Indigenous Q&A presenter Stan Grant (pictured) criticized Australian television for being dominated by white faces.
Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf, whose parents moved Down Under from Lebanon in the 1970s, called local television networks a “neo-Nazis’ wet dream.”
His comments came after Grant criticized the lack of representation of people of color on local television.
The Monday night show featured an all-white lineup of 1980s British pop star Billy Bragg, Labor MP Josh Burns, economist Gigi Foster and Senator Perin Davey.
Grant claimed that the lack of diversity was giving viewers a false impression of the multicultural society in which they actually live.
“People like you and me are still rare on our screens,” the veteran broadcaster and outspoken anti-racism activist told Ms Lattouf.
‘And the stories are still being told by people who look like other people on the panel here tonight.
‘What does it take to break through, because the world doesn’t look like that? It looks like us!
Grant, along with Ten’s The Project presenter Waleed Aly and Malaysian-born ABC newscaster Jeremy Fernandez, are among the few people of color regularly seen on mainstream Australian television.
A Melbourne-born Muslim of Egyptian parents, Aly won a Gold Logie in 2016, declaring: ‘Don’t adjust your sets, there’s nothing wrong with the picture.’
Waleed Aly, (left) a Melbourne-born Muslim of Egyptian parents, won a Gold Logie in 2016, declaring: “Don’t adjust your sets, there’s nothing wrong with the picture.” Malaysian-born ABC newscaster Jeremy Fernandez (right) is among the few people of color regularly seen on mainstream Australian television.
Lattouf, a mother of two who founded Media Diversity Australia in 2017, said it took great determination to succeed as a non-white in Australia.
Patience is needed. It takes a thick skin,’ he told Grant.
“It takes having to fight the urge to go on a Tourette-style spiel when you get the chance.
‘Because sometimes it’s frustrating that change is glacial. You take one step forward, four steps back.
‘Even in the year of the referendum (on Voice of Parliament), we still have white panels discussing things like the referendum.
“We still have panels of white people talking about refugee and asylum seeker policy, that baffles me.”
She added: “At least in the UK, when you see the politicians when you turn on the TV, even the Prime Minister, although it’s arguably not a big win for progressive politics.”
“All of our storytellers, all of our institutions of power, all of them have been largely white male.
‘There is a bit of progress now. We have white women. So there’s a lot more work to do.