Stan Grant (journalist)

Last updated

Stan Grant
FASSA
Stan Grant at the 2025 Adelaide Writers' Week - 02.jpg
Grant in 2025
Born (1963-09-30) 30 September 1963 (age 61)
Griffith, New South Wales, Australia
Occupations
  • Radio and TV presenter
  • journalist
  • writer
  • lecturer
Years active1986–present
Notable credit(s) Real Life host (1992–1994)
CNN anchor (2000–2007, 2009–2013)
Reporting Live (2013–2016)
Matter of Fact (2018)
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1984;div. 2000)​
​
(m. 2000)​
Children3 with Grant
1 with Holmes [1]
Parent(s) Stan Grant Sr
Elizabeth Cameron

Stan Grant FASSA (born 30 September 1963) is an Australian (Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal [2] [3] ) journalist, writer and radio and television presenter, since the 1990s. He has written and spoken on Indigenous issues and his Aboriginal identity. He is a Wiradjuri man.

Contents

Early life and education

Grant was born on 30 September 1963 in Griffith, New South Wales, [4] the son of Stan Grant Sr, an elder of the Wiradjuri people [5] and Elizabeth Grant ( née  Cameron), born near Coonabarabran, the daughter of a white woman and a Kamilaroi Aboriginal man. The Wiradjuri are an Aboriginal Australian people from the south-west inland region of New South Wales. He spent much of his childhood in inner Victoria, where the Wiradjuri people also have roots. [5]

Grant spent his high school years in Canberra at Ginninderra High.[ citation needed ]

Career

Journalism

Grant has more than 30 years of experience working in broadcast radio and television news and current affairs. He spent several years as a news presenter on the Australian Macquarie Radio Network, Seven, SBS, along with a long-term stint at CNN International as a Senior International Correspondent in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Beijing, before starting with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

1990s–2012

In 1994, as host of the Seven Network current affairs programme Real Life Grant won the Logie Award for Most Popular Current Affairs Programme. [6]

In 2007 he took on the role of co-presenter of the one-hour 6:30 pm SBS World News Australia bulletin, and also presented ABC Local Radio's Indigenous programme Speaking Out. In December 2007, Grant resigned from SBS World News Australia and was replaced by Anton Enus.

In 2009 Grant was appointed UAE correspondent for CNN. Based in CNN's new Abu Dhabi news-gathering and production centre, Grant covered stories from both the UAE and the surrounding region [7] and hosted the programme Prism.

2012: NITV and pay TV

Grant returned to Australia in 2012 to help launch SBS' new National Indigenous Television (NITV) channel, [8] and in 2013 hosted a nightly late night news programme NewsNight for Sky News Australia, which aired weeknights at 11 pm. [9] From 2014 he started hosting Sky News Australia's Reporting Live with Stan Grant at 6 pm, a nightly news programme reporting on the serious news stories of the day, and in April of that year he hosted Crimes that Shook Australia, a six-part television drama series broadcast on Foxtel. [10]

2015: Racism speech

In 2015 Grant took part in a public debate at the IQ2 stage of The Ethics Centre, [11] with immigration lawyer Pallavi Sinha, Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi and actor Jack Thompson to argue for or against the topic "Racism is destroying the Australian dream". He told of the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians, past and present. He argued that "the Australian Dream" was based upon racism, mentioning his ancestors and others who were forced into institutions and unpaid work. [12] The debate itself was a finalist in the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards for "its role in stimulating public awareness and understanding". [13] [12]

Stan Grant interviewed on the importance of storytelling and place Stan Grant interviewed on why stories matter at for the NSW Landcare Conference October 2017.jpg
Stan Grant interviewed on the importance of storytelling and place

2017–2023

In 2017, Grant joined the ABC as editor of Indigenous Affairs and fill-in host of nightly current affairs programme 7.30. Grant also hosted The Link, which aired on Friday nights. [14] [15]

In 2018 Grant started hosting a flagship national night current affairs programme, Matter of Fact , [16] on the ABC News TV Channel and ABC News Radio. He was also appointed chief Asia correspondent for the ABC News Network. [17] The program was cancelled after 10 months, ending on 29 November 2018, after which time he took up the new role of Indigenous and International Affairs Analyst with the ABC, [18] concurrently with a professorship at Griffith University. [19] [20]

In 2019 Grant moved to Doha, capital city of Qatar, to start work with Al Jazeera English. [21]

In September 2020, it was announced that Grant would become the ABC's International Affairs Analyst with the broadcaster noting his past journalistic experience in China affairs. [22] This was notable as the ABC reporters working in China, Bill Birtles and Mike Smith, were removed from China by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on advice from the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, Australia's chief spy agency; the evacuation of the reporters led to a short diplomatic standoff. [23]

In December 2020, Grant hosted a series of episodes about identity for the ABC's long form interview program One Plus One. [24]

In 2021, Grant launched the ABC's China Tonight program – looking at Chinese culture and politics for an Australian audience. [25]

In July 2022, it was announced that Grant will permanently host Q+A from 1 August. [26] In May 2023, Grant resigned from the show after an escalation of racial abuse that occurred following his participation in the ABC's coverage of King Charles III's coronation. [27] [28]

2023: Media and social media

In May 2023, Grant was invited by the ABC to be a commentator for the coverage of the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May 2023. During the programme, he commented that the Crown "represented the invasion, the theft of land - and in our case - the exterminating war". [29] Subsequently, he expanded on these comments stating: "In the name of the crown my people were segregated on missions and reserves. Police wearing the seal of the crown took children from their families. Under the crown our people were massacred." [30] These comments were criticised by some in the media and community, resulting in a social media commentary that Grant described as "a sordid spectacle. A grotesque burlesque. Lives are reduced to mockery and ridicule." [30] Grant was subject to abuse in the media that caused him to comment on Q&A on 15 May 2023 that he would leave the show at least temporarily after the next episode on 22 May. Grant made a speech at the end of the 22 May show, stating that his would be leaving, not directly due to the racial abuse, but due to feeling that the media itself was the problem as "Too often, we are the poison in the bloodstream of our society." He also accused the ABC of "institutional failure" and that it had failed to publicly defend him. [31] He was supported by hundreds of ABC staff around the country walking out of office in support of Grant. Many carried signs saying, "I stand with Stan". ABC news director Justin Stevens told a crowd of hundreds outside the organisation's Sydney headquarters "enough is enough. The line in the sand is here, and we will not tolerate our staff being subjected to racial abuse, or any form of abuse. It must stop." [32]

Later in 2024, Grant joined The Saturday Paper as a columnist. [33]

Academia

In October 2018 Grant was appointed Professor of Global Affairs at Griffith University. [19] [20] In April 2020 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor's Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging [34] at Charles Sturt University, [35] [36] a position he still holds as of October 2022. [37] [38] He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2023. [39] In 2024, he completed his PhD at Charles Sturt University, with a dissertation titled "Yindyamarra as theology: identity, history, violence, faith and reconciliation." [40] [41] [42]

Other activities and roles

Politics

During early 2016 Grant was talked about as running in the 2016 Australian federal election. Grant ruled out running for the National Party of Australia and said he was not "ideologically bound to the left" and that he admired people with the "small-l liberal" approach". [43]

In mid-March, nine weeks before the 2019 Australian federal election, Grant was asked by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison to a meeting at Kirribilli House. While there he was asked to run for the Liberal Party of Australia, but turned down the offer, saying "It was an honour to be asked by the Prime Minister, but in the end that role is just not for me. I like what I am doing now, totally independently, and I don't have to make my views fit within a party framework." [44]

Film

Grant wrote, and features in, the full-length documentary film The Australian Dream , released in 2019, [45] the title of which echoes that of his address at the IQ2 debate. [12] The film looks at the part played by racism in the demonisation of Australian Rules football-player Adam Goodes. It won the AACTA Award for best feature documentary in the 2019 series [45] [46] and the 2019 Walkley Documentary Award. [47]

In 2021 he was appointed as one of three Indigenous ambassadors to the SmartFone Flick Fest, along with actor and filmmaker Wayne Blair and screenwriter Jon Bell. [48]

Other

Grant has been an ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation since 2017. [49]

He was a Senior Fellow during the 2019-20 financial year at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. [50]

Grant gave the Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture at James Cook University in Townsville on Mabo Day, 3 June 2022, the 30th anniversary of the Mabo case, which first recognised native title under Australian common law. [51] On 30 October 2023 he gave the JG Crawford Oration at the Australian National University Crawford Leadership Forum. [52] [53]

Selected publications

Awards

As of February 2020, Grant has won the following awards: [65]

Personal life

Grant was married to Karla Grant with whom he has a daughter and two sons. [1] [67] A well publicised marriage break-up in 2000, prior to the Sydney Olympic Games, resulted from his starting a relationship with fellow TV journalist Tracey Holmes. After criticism from News Corporation tabloids, [68] while News Corporation was involved in the C7 Sport dispute with Seven, his employment at the Seven Network was terminated as a result, and he and Holmes moved to Hong Kong with CNN. [1] They were there for two years with their baby son, before moving to Beijing in mainland China with CNN, totalling 14 years in Asia. [69]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Stan Grant: 'I've put the past behind me'". News.com.au. 10 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Norman, Heidi (23 May 2023). "Stan Grant's new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?". The Conversation. a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.
  3. ↑ "Stan Grant". Al Jazeera. 26 January 2020. Stan Grant is a Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal man.
  4. ↑ "Biography – Stan Grant". Indigenous Australia. Australian National University. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  5. 1 2 Dias, Muditha (14 June 2013). "Elite racism and the Australian media". Radio National (transcript). Australia: ABC Radio . Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  6. ↑ "List of 1994 Logie Award Winners". TV Week . 1994. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "CNN Appoints Three Foreign Correspondents". TV Newser . Archived from the original on 8 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Morgan, Myles (22 February 2016). "Stan Grant: The journey so far". NITV News. SBS Australia . Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  9. ↑ "Stan Grant joins Sky News". Media Spy. 3 December 2012.
  10. ↑ Idato, Michael (13 February 2014). "Shocking crimes revisited in new series". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "IQ2 Debates Australia". The Ethics Centre. 28 August 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 Davey, Melissa (24 January 2016). "Stan Grant's speech on racism and the Australian dream goes viral". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  13. ↑ "Stan Grant: Racism and the Australian dream". The Ethics Centre. 24 January 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  14. ↑ "The Link – ABC News". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  15. ↑ "The Link". ABC iview. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "New on ABC NEWS Channel – Matter of Fact with Stan Grant". 16 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "ABC axes Lateline in overhaul". News.com.au. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  18. ↑ Knox, David (30 November 2018). "Axed: Matter of Fact". TV Tonight. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  19. 1 2 Marshall, Deborah (25 October 2018). "Stan Grant joins Griffith University" . Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  20. 1 2 Grant, Stan (10 February 2020). "Stan Grant interviewed by Margaret Throsby" (audio + text). ABC Classic (Interview). Interviewed by Margaret Throsby. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  21. ↑ Mitchell, Thomas (16 August 2019). "Why Stan Grant remains hopeful about the future of Australia". Executive Style. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  22. ↑ Knox, David (21 September 2020). "Stan Grant returns to ABC News". TV Tonight. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  23. ↑ "'It felt very, very political': ABC reporter evacuated from China after being interrogated by police". ABC News. 7 September 2020. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  24. ↑ Houston, Melinda (6 December 2020). "Stan Grant searches for identity in One Plus One". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  25. ↑ Bagshaw, Erik (15 June 2021). "Stan Grant valiantly attempts to unpack a cultural and political divide in China Tonight". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  26. ↑ Quinn, Karl (25 July 2022). "Stan Grant named as new sole host of Q+A". The Age. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  27. ↑ Meade, Amanda (19 May 2023). "Q+A host Stan Grant standing down from ABC show after racist abuse". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  28. ↑ Zhuang, Yan (23 May 2023). "Australia Reckons With TV Host's Exit Over Racist Abuse". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  29. ↑ "Stan Grant: Top Australian TV host steps down after enduring racist abuse". 19 May 2023.
  30. 1 2 For years I've been a media target for racism and paid a heavy price. For now, I want no part of it – I'm stepping away, Stan Grant, ABC News Online, 2023-05-19
  31. ↑ Stan Grant sends a message to his abusers in last Q+A before stepping away, Caitlin Rawling, ABC News Online, 2023-05-23
  32. ↑ ABC staff rally in show of support for Stan Grant, Jacob Shields, ABC News Online, 2023-05-22
  33. ↑ www.bandt.com.au/former-qa-host-stan-grant-joins-the-saturday-paper/
  34. ↑ "Vice Chancellor's Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging". Charles Sturt University – Office of Indigenous Engagement. 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  35. ↑ Barlow, Nicole. "Professor Stan Grant Jnr to bring decades of knowledge and experience to new role at Charles Sturt". news.csu.edu.au. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  36. ↑ "Stanley Grant". Charles Sturt University Research Output. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  37. ↑ "Stan Grant". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  38. ↑ "Stanley Grant". Charles Sturt University Research Output. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  39. ↑ "The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia welcomes 21 new Fellows". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. 8 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  40. ↑ Grant, Stan (4 March 2024). Yindyamarra as theology: identity, history, violence, faith and reconciliation. Charles Sturt University. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  41. ↑ Jacobs, Jack (13 December 2023). ""To live with respect in a world worth living in": What I've learned from my friend, Stan Grant". ABC Religion & Ethics. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  42. ↑ Broughton, Geoff (21 November 2023). "Stan Grant gives the Sorensen lecture at Yale Divinity School". St Marks National Theological Centre News. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  43. ↑ "Stan Grant rules out running for National Party in federal politics bid". ABC News. 18 March 2016.
  44. ↑ FitzSimons, Peter (23 March 2019). "PM wanted Stan Grant as his man to fill empty seat" . Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  45. 1 2 3 Fryer, Brooke (5 December 2019). "Indigenous talent in total control at awards night". NITV. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  46. 1 2 agencies (4 December 2019). "Aacta awards 2019 winners: The Nightingale and Total Control dominate Australian screen awards". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  47. 1 2 Pash, Chris (29 November 2019). "Walkley Awards winners 2019". AdNews. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  48. ↑ "Smart Phone Film Festival". What's On Sydney. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2025.
  49. ↑ "AIEF Ambassadors". Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. 1 April 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  50. ↑ "Introducing Strategic Vision 2020 with Stan Grant and Peter Jennings". Australian Strategic Policy Institute. 14 July 2020. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  51. ↑ Grant, Stan (5 June 2022). "Eddie Mabo and Gerard Brennan overturned the terra nullius policy and changed Australia forever". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  52. ↑ "Professor Stan Grant set to deliver opening oration at ANU Crawford Leadership Forum 2023". Monash University. 30 October 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  53. ↑ ANU TV (30 October 2023). JG Crawford Oration - delivered by Professor Stan Grant . Retrieved 7 December 2024– via YouTube.
  54. ↑ Stan Grant (30 July 2015). "I can tell you how Adam Goodes feels. Every Indigenous person has felt it". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  55. ↑ "Stan Grant addresses National Press Club to launch Talking to My Country – video". The Guardian . 22 February 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  56. ↑ JF (12 March 2016). "Talking to My Country". The Saturday Paper . Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  57. ↑ Richardson, Owen (20 December 2016). "Book Review: The Australian Dream review: Stan Grant's vision of his country and its future". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  58. 1 2 Maddison, Sarah (17 May 2019). "Australia Day & On Identity: A conversation Stan Grant wants to start". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  59. 1 2 Pascoe, Bruce (22 July 2019). "Bruce Pascoe reviews 'On Identity' and 'Australia Day' by Stan Grant". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  60. ↑ Mayer, Erich (10 July 2019). "Book Review: Australia Day by Stan Grant". ArtsHub Australia. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  61. ↑ Grant, Stan (2019). On identity. Melbourne University Press. ISBN   978-0-522-87552-2.
  62. ↑ Tell it to the world. Scribe North America. 2019. ISBN   9781947534261. OCLC   1117339498.
  63. ↑ "Tell it to the World: An Indigenous Memoir". Strong Nations. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  64. ↑ "With the Falling of the Dusk". TROVE. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  65. ↑ Suleiman, Omar (26 January 2020). "Stan Grant". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  66. ↑ "Stan Grant". The Walkley Foundation. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  67. ↑ Souter, Fenella (8 May 2024). "Lowanna Grant stayed living with mum Karla into her 30s. Here's why". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  68. ↑ "Stan and his Holmes wrecker sacked". Media Watch (transcript). ABC TV. 21 August 2000. Archived from the original on 26 January 2001. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  69. ↑ 'Tracey's got a secret': Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes open up about their relationship and a surprise twist from the past, Tracey Spring, ABC News Online, 2021-10-23

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