A guest on the ABC’s Q+A program has branded Australian television a “neo-Nazi wet dream” after Indigenous presenter Stan Grant slammed it for white supremacy.
Australian journalist Antoinette Latouf, whose parents moved Down Under from Lebanon in the 1970s, has blasted the web for being stuck in the White Australia era of the 1960s.
Ms Latouf criticized the representation of multicultural Australia on mainstream local TV shows, saying it now lags far behind the rest of the world.
“Australia is really far behind the UK or the US,” he raged on Monday night’s show.
“We still have networks or programs that are like a wet dream of neo-Nazis. We still do, despite the fact that over half the population is culturally diverse.
‘[But] we’re just going to kind of ignore those voices.”
ABC Indigenous Q+A presenter Stan Grant (pictured) has criticized Australian television for its white supremacy.
Australian journalist Antoinette Latouf, whose parents moved Down Under from Lebanon in the 1970s, described local TV networks as a “neo-Nazi wet dream”.
His comments came after Grant criticized the lack of representation of people of color on local television.
Monday night’s show featured 80s British pop star Billy Bragg, Labor MP Josh Burns, economist Gigi Foster and Senator Perrin Davey in an otherwise all-white line-up.
Grant argued that the lack of diversity gives viewers a false impression of the multicultural society in which they actually live.
“People like you and I are still rare on our screens,” veteran broadcaster and outspoken anti-racism activist Ms Latoofi said.
“And the stories are still being told by people who are like the other people on the panel here tonight.
‘What does it take to break through, because the world doesn’t look like that?’ It is like us.
Grant, along with Ten’s The Project presenter Waleed Ali and Malaysian-born ABC newsreader Jeremy Fernandes, are among the few people of color regularly seen on Australian mainstream television.
Ali, a Muslim born in Melbourne to Egyptian parents, won a Gold Logie in 2016 and declared:
Walid Ali (left), a Melbourne-born Muslim of Egyptian parents, won a Gold Logie in 2016 and declared: Malaysian-born ABC newsreader Jeremy Fernandes (right) is one of the few people of color regularly seen on Australian mainstream television.
Ms Latouf, a mother of two who founded Media Diversity Australia in 2017, said it took a strong determination to succeed as a non-white in Australia.
– Patience is needed. It takes a thick skin,” he told Grant.
“You have to fight the urge to curse Tourette’s-style whenever you get the chance.
‘Cause sometimes it’s frustrating that change is a glacier. You take one step forward, four steps back.
“Even in the year of the referendum [on the Voice to Parliament]we still have all white panels discussing things like the referendum.
“We still have all-white panels talking about refugee and asylum seeker policy, it baffles me.”
He added: “At least in the UK, when you see politicians on TV, even the Prime Minister, although arguably he’s not a big win for progressive politics.
“All of our storytellers, all of our institutions of power, they’ve all been predominantly white men.
‘Now there is a little progress. We have white women. And so there is still a lot of work to be done.”