A host of former and current staff members at the ABC have reacted to the results of an independent review into racism at the broadcaster.
The Listen Loudly, Act Strongly review — led by Indigenous lawyer Dr. Terri Janke — detailed reports from 120 current and former ABC employees who identified either as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) or First Nations people.
Of that group, only one participant in the review said they had not personally experienced racism while working at the ABC, with the claims of the remaining respondents “overwhelmingly indicat[ing] that racism exists” at the broadcaster.
According to the review, these experiences ranged from covert racism like stereotyping and unconscious bias, to more overt examples including instances of racial slurs being used, offensive comments made about a person’s appearance, and the exclusion of certain staff from workplace opportunities.
More broadly, the review found that systemic racial issues are present at the ABC, citing more “entrenched” issues around fair employment conditions, pay discrepancies, and instances of bullying and harassment in the workplace.
“We emphasise that the majority of participants expressed significant hurt, helplessness and exhaustion around their experiences in the workplace,” the report read.
The report prompted a response from the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, during an appearance on ABC News on Tuesday.
“On behalf of everyone at the ABC, I am sorry for any and all racist behaviour and past harms experienced by our Indigenous and [CALD] employees, either currently or formerly employed,” Anderson said.
“We all need to do better for our colleagues on our commitment to zero tolerance for racism in our workplace.”
Now, a swathe of current and ex-ABC staffers have responded to the bombshell report. Brooke Boney, who previously worked as a newsreader for the ABC’s radio network, Triple J, said she was “not surprised” by the results of the review.
Boney, who more recently served as an entertainment reporter on the Today Show, wrote in an Instagram Story that she had heard of “some pretty awful comments” made by an ABC employee.
Boney said the comments were made about her after she was offered a place at Oxford University, which prompted her departure from the Today Show earlier this year.
“If they’re willing to say that publicly”, Boney said, “they’re willing to bully Aboriginal staff.”
Antoinette Lattouf — the former ABC Radio Sydney presenter who is currently in the midst of an unfair dismissal case against the broadcaster — also reacted to the review on social media.
“*Insert shocked face*”, Lattouf wrote alongside a link to the report on X. Meanwhile, on Instagram, Lattouf shared a screenshot with Anderson’s apology underlined, with the caption: “Except not to me of course”.
Meanwhile, for his response, Melbourne ABC journalist Ahmed Yussuf thanked all “ABC staff that spoke out and shared their experiences of racism” — in an X post that was retweeted by ABC News Breakfast co-host, Bridget Brennan.
For her part, ABC NewsRadio presenter Tracey Holmes offered her thoughts on the review in a lengthy X post, saying the “findings of systemic racism at the ABC should shock nobody”.
“Every person either suffered it, witnessed it, or perpetrated it”, Holmes wrote. The presenter went on to commend Anderson for his commitment to adopt the recommendations of the review, and said she hopes current staffers will use the results to “rebuild an Australian institution that by its very charter should reflect the nation in all its diversity”.
Elsewhere, Saman Shad — a journalist who has written for the ABC in the past — said while the broadcaster’s response was “better than most media orgs in this country”, the issues presented in the review “have been known for sometime now”.
Shad said she had “stories of my own”, and questioned how long “meaningful change [is] going to occur.”
Jarni Blakkarly, a writer who has also contributed to the ABC, described Anderson’s response to the review as “concerningly two-dimensional”.
“Instead of senior managers at the ABC looking in the mirror and reflecting on how they uphold power structures, [Anderson] wants to embark on a hunt to ‘find the big bad racists’”, Blakkarly wrote. In another X post, Blakkarly said Anderson’s response “pretty disappointing” and “completely ignores the insidious nature of racism”.
Meanwhile, in an X post retweeted by ABC Asia Pacific producer Max Walden, reporter Nabil Al-Nashar shared screenshots of a racist attack he’d received in the wake of the review. “And…right…on…queue!”, Al-Nashar wrote, “A sample of fresh #Racism, as if to prove the review’s point”.
Anderson agreed to implement all 15 of the review’s recommendations, which range improving the ABC’s responses to public attacks on staffer, having execs read the review in-full, and adopting a “pro-actively anti-racist” approach moving forward.
Lead image: Kokkai Ng/Getty Image, Instagram and X.
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