Australians have been shocked by a racist slur scrawled on a Qantas magazine and left in the pocket of an airline seat.
Indigenous Olympian and former federal senator Nova Peris shared a magazine photo taken by her husband Scott Appleton when he flew from Alice Springs to Darwin on Tuesday.
The magazine was in the pocket of the seat in front of the elderly woman next to Mr Appleton and appeared to be a spiteful reaction to the welcome to country program broadcast by the airline before each landing.
The husband of former Indigenous Olympian federal senator Nova Peris was shocked to see the racist scrawl left on the cover of a Qantas in-flight magazine.
The message said that “no one respects” indigenous people, labeling them “lazy” with a racist slur.
“Stop stupidly respecting the elderly,” the second line read.
“Let’s hope Qantas tells its cleaning contractors to remove Qantas books from planes with racist messages written on them,” Ms Peris wrote.
Commenters also expressed their dismay.
“Appalling and ignorant racist statement, the magazine should definitely have been seen and removed by the staff,” one person wrote.
‘Appalling. “I’m so sorry,” said another.
“Cleaning staff need to be more attentive, but people also need to show respect for others,” another commented.
Appleton reportedly alerted a flight attendant about the defaced magazine, which was later removed.
“They handled the situation very well and were extremely sensitive in the way they handled it,” he told the National Indigenous Times.
Nova Peris has called on Qantas to ensure its cleaning staff are more diligent in removing racist graffiti.
Qantas expressed shock and regret at the defaced magazine.
“We are appalled that someone made these racist comments,” a Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo News.
“We are committed to supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and are proud that our crew recognize the country on every flight that lands in Australia.”