An ABC reporter covering the Hobart “Invasion Day” protest on Tuesday has been slammed during a live broadcast for speaking over the rally’s minute’s silence.
“It’s been interesting to see how many people have turned up to the rally,” reporter Edith Bevin said during the live cross. “Behind me now, they’re engaged in a minute’s silence.
“Obviously this is a day that marks what the Aboriginal community in Tasmania refer to as Invasion Day – the day of white settlement of Australia – and certainly there are a lot of placards about calling for that date to be changed, to be more inclusive.”
As she was delivering her report, a woman approached Bevin and criticised her for speaking during the minute’s silence.
“How dare you,” the woman said as Bevin continued talking to the camera. “How dare you,” the woman repeated before anchor Ros Childs was forced to cut the feed.
“We’ll perhaps go back to Edith when that minute’s silence has been completed,” Childs said.
— Caldron Pool (@CaldronPool) January 26, 2021
On Sunday, The Australian reported that the ABC had decided to officially refer to January 26 as “Invasion Day,” maintaining it would be “inappropriate” to insist that staff only call it Australia Day or “use anyone term over others in all contexts.”
Advance Australia rightly said if the ABC really believe that January 26 is “Invasion Day” it should hand back all of its prime inner-city real estates to the Aboriginals and turn over their $1 billion-plus per year budget as reparations.
“Allowing the ABC to follow its logic and hand back the land and the loot would solve two problems dividing Australians in one fell swoop,” the organisation wrote.
“Land and serious cash would go to indigenous peoples and the ABC would disappear never to again divide Australians with its toxic identity politics.”
One can dream.
