Stan Grant exits Q+A permanently
By Calum Jaspan
Stan Grant won’t return to Q+A, having quit as presenter, and will now focus on “new projects” within the ABC, while fill-in host Patricia Karvelas will continue in the role until the end of the year before a permanent replacement is appointed.
Grant, 59, a Wiradjuri man from the Griffith region in NSW and a triple Walkley Award winner, stepped away from the role in May, citing exhaustion due to a barrage of racist abuse on social media, which escalated after the ABC’s coverage of King Charles’ coronation.
Grant has stepped down from his role as Q+A presenter.Credit: Jacquie Manning
“Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough,” Grant wrote in an ABC opinion piece explaining his departure in May.
ABC news director Justin Stevens said Grant was one of the nation’s finest journalists, storytellers and broadcasters, and that the broadcaster was delighted to have his contribution continue across a number of programs.
“We want to do all we can to support Stan and ensure he continues to play a major role in Australian media. He has the ability to lead our media toward a kinder and more constructive conversation,” Stevens said.
“In Wiradjuri ‘dyiraamalang’ means a teacher and leader. Stan Grant, a proud Wiradjuri man, is both of those things and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does into the future.”
An ABC spokesperson said the broadcaster would go through a normal selection process before settling on a permanent host beyond 2023.
“Patricia Karvelas has been doing an outstanding job as fill-in host and we’re delighted she has agreed to continue in that role,” said Stevens.
Grant remains on leave with no return date, an ABC spokesperson said.
Appointed as permanent host in August 2022, Grant was previously part of a rotating panel of hosts including David Speers and Virginia Trioli. Grant is the second host of the program to quit the high-profile role recently, after Hamish Macdonald returned to Ten’s The Project just 18 months after joining the ABC.
The ABC’s chair, Ita Buttrose, responded to the Australian Monarchist League in a letter last week, following complaints over ABC’s coverage of the coronation in May.
Buttrose stood by the ABC’s coverage and complaints process, reaffirming that it did not breach editorial guidelines and that the Ombudsman found covering Indigenous perspectives on the monarchy were “legitimate and newsworthy topics of discussion” in the context of the ABC’s broader coverage.
Patricia Karvelas has been filling in as host since Grant’s departure and will now stay in the chair until the end of the year.Credit: Scott McNaughton
“I am sorry they were disappointed with our coverage,” Buttrose said, pointing to segments of the audience who were disappointed, rather than explicitly apologising for the coverage.
She is yet to respond to a request for comment.
A former ABC board director, who requested anonymity so they could speak freely, noted Buttrose’s response to the Australian Monarchist League was appropriate, based on the significant audience reaction to the broadcast.
“The chair has to be seen to be listening and be courteous,” the former director said.
“It was essentially a ‘we hear your complaint’,” they added, noting the letter was “diplomatic”.
Chairman of the Australian Monarchist League Eric Abetz said he hoped Buttrose would reconsider her response. The former Liberal senator said he thought her response suggested the ABC did not understand the dynamic of the republic debate in Australia.
“The ABC ombudsman’s report is interesting, but it doesn’t deal with the issue at hand and the outrage and upset expressed by so many Australians,” Abetz said.
The segment – featuring Grant, Indigenous writer and lawyer Teela Reid and Australian Republican Movement chair Craig Foster plus Liberal MP and monarchist Julian Leeser – was part of eight hours of coverage on the May 6 coronation led by Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez.
ABC Voice correspondent and presenter of The Drum, Dan Bourchier, will also host a special edition of Q+A from the Garma Festival, featuring an all-Indigenous panel.
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correction
An earlier version of this story said that Patricia Karvelas would stay in the Q+A host role permanently. This was incorrect - it has been updated to say she will do the role until the end of the year before a formal process for appointing a permanent host takes place.