The ABC has permanently appointed Stan Grant as the full-time host of the weekly flagship discussion program Q+A, a year after Hamish Macdonald quit and was replaced by rotating hosts.
Grant will begin his role as a solo host with a special Monday edition of Q+A on 1 August from the Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
“Garma is a talking place where the nation asks itself hard questions about who we are. It is an honour to take the helm of Q+A from there,” Grant said.
“Hosting Q+A is a huge responsibility. I feel the weight of the audience’s trust in me and the program. I will approach my role with integrity, decency and humility.”
Macdonald walked away from Q+A in July last year, having taken over from founding Q+A host Tony Jones in 2020. He said it was a bruising experience because of constant abuse from social media.
“And the abuse has come from leftwing people, who don’t like you asking difficult questions of Dan Andrews, and it’s come from people on the right who don’t like you asking difficult questions of the federal government,” he said last year.
The ABC replaced him with a rotating roster of Grant, ABC Melbourne Radio host Virginia Trioli and Insiders host David Speers, depending on what city the program was broadcasting from.
ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, thanked Trioli and Speers for their “huge contribution” to the program and said Grant was a natural fit for the position of permanent host.
“As well as being a hugely experienced journalist and presenter, Stan Grant plays a respected role in Australia’s key national conversations,” Stevens said. “Leading Q+A is a role that suits the breadth of his knowledge and talents.
“Q+A is unique in giving citizens a chance to participate in live-to-air discussion with Australia’s top thought leaders, policymakers and elected representatives, helping to hold power to account and facilitate constructive discussion about our nation and its future.
“With Stan at the helm, we’ll continue to explore ways to further develop Q+A, including how to get audiences even more involved.”
The announcement puts to rest speculation that Q+A might be cancelled or moved to a new time slot.
ABC viewers, used to 12 years of Monday nights with a news and current affairs lineup of Australian Story, Four Corners, Media Watch and Q+A, complained loudly about the move to Thursday nights in 2020.
The show’s audience has declined since its heyday – as have audiences for free-to-air television in general – but ABC says high ratings are not the aim, as its core obligation is to generate public engagement.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott once banned his ministers from appearing on Q+A, arguing the show was “out of control” and a “lefty lynch mob”, but the show has also been attacked by the left for giving a platform to divisive and ill-informed speakers.
Grant will continue to present China Tonight and write his weekly column for ABC News Digital, as well as being involved in other ABC News projects.
