When he brought up violence against Aboriginal women on the ABC’s Q&A show, conservative broadcaster Alan Jones was silenced.
Jones, who ruled Sydney’s morning radio for more than three decades, referred to Senator Jacinta Price of the Indigenous Northern Territory Country Liberals’ initiative to draw attention to the high prevalence of domestic abuse in isolated Aboriginal areas.
What are you going to do about the horrific abuse against women in the Northern Territory? The ADH TV host said that nothing had been done about it.
‘Last year, Jacinta Price traveled to Canberra and made shocking discoveries regarding the situation in the Northern Territory.
Nobody, not a single person, has spoken out in her defense, and nothing has been done.
The first Muslim MP in Australia and a federal Labor cabinet member, Ed Husic, interrupted.
Violence against women, he claimed, “goes across all colors.”
Jones next sought a comment from Indigenous author and former Melbourne Stars Twenty20 Big Bash League cricketer Ben Abbatangelo.
Deidre Trewhella, an Indigenous audience member who had inquired about “hostility against first nations people” as someone who had “survived my family being ripped apart by government law,” shut off the debate when the Q&A host, Stan Grant, who is also Indigenous, remained mute.
Grant added, “Can I just say, we’re having this discussion in front of an Aboriginal lady who has asked us this question?”
‘Deirdre, even as you asked the question, I could see you were in trouble.
I simply want to ask whether we may leave it in its current location.
Deirdre, I’m so glad you asked that question, and I’m sorry you even had to ask it—obvious it’s that these are not simple things to ask.
Following allegations of racism against Hawthorn coaches in Melbourne, Abbatangelo also said on the panel discussion that Indigenous players should quit the AFL.
Indigenous athletes were kept apart from their families, and one athlete was instructed to force his partner to have an abortion.
Abbatangelo suggested that Indigenous athletes boycott the AFL, comparing the concept to the Wave Hill Walk-Off of 1966 in the Northern Territory, during which 200 Gurindji domestic workers, stockmen, and their families went on strike against unfair treatment.
He said, “I believe it’s time for Indigenous players around the AFL to boycott.”
“Learn from the Wave Hill Walk now,”
Off, I believe it’s time to take note of the fact that solidarity always triumphs in political movements from history’s many previous political movements.
According to the AFL, “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the top shareholders because they contribute such delight to the game.”