Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has criticised the ABC's satirical news special Always Was Tonight, describing it as "odious" and "activist-driven".
Hosted by Gamilaroi man Tony Armstrong and featuring Noongar-Yamatji woman and former The Bachelorette Australia star Brooke Blurton, the program aired on January 22 in the lead up to the January 26 public holiday. The ABC described it as a "sharp satirical special ... set to decolonise the news — one headline at a time".
The program targeted a range of conservative figures and organisations, including right-wing broadcaster Sky News, far-right political party One Nation and mining magnate Gina Rinehart, as well as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland MP Bob Katter.
"The special brings a fearless First Nations lens to the stories that are shaping the country," the ABC said.
Although promoted as satire, the show drew criticism from conservative outlets, with Senator Price adding her voice to the condemnation and urging people to "call out activist-driven programs like 'Always Was Tonight'".
The senator, a long-time critic of the national broadcaster, said that despite being described as satire, "It was nothing of the sort."
"It's an utter disgrace that 'Always Was Tonight' — propaganda masquerading as comedy — was allowed to be made, let alone broadcast," she said in a statement posted to social media.
"The taxpayer-funded national broadcaster is not the [sic] 'the nation's town square', as claimed by Mr [ABC Managing Director Hugh] Marks. Today, the ABC more closely resembles a sewer of activism.
"'Always Was Tonight' is yet another example of how the ABC has turned its back on objectivity."
Mr Armstrong, who won the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent at the 2022 Logies and the Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter at the 2023 Logies, opened the program by declaring, "Tonight we're giving the colony a colonoscopy."
"This show is black, it's cracked and it wants its land back," he said.
After several satirical segments targeting prominent Australian figures, Mr Armstrong ended the program on a more serious note, saying, "We will be back next year, unless the ABC is racist or something."
"I'm sure you're expecting me to use this moment to do a big viral speech about what January 26 means, and why you, the good white people watching, ought to feel real sad. But the problem is you already know. You've heard it before, you know it's wrong. Don't be a dog."
Focusing on the over-representation of Indigenous children in custody, Mr Armstrong said, "In almost all of this country, the age of criminal responsibility is just 10 years old."
"This is a crackdown on black kids who are 21 times more likely to be in prison than other kids," he said. "On an average night like tonight in Australia, 35 Indigenous kids under 13 years old will be incarcerated. Our government thinks these kids are too young and vulnerable to use a TikTok account, but we're comfortable shoving them in prison."
In her statement, Senator Price highlighted a number of on-screen ticker comments from the program, including: "Stickler historian wants you to remember Arthur Phillip was also a c**t", "Flag cape worn on front to hide piss stains", and "Rural property owner discovers his view isn't priceless as new massacre sites uncovered".
"Activists are determined to look at our history in the most hostile, unforgiving and unbalanced manner imaginable," Senator Price said.
"In demonising British settlement, activists seek to delegitimise the achievement of modern Australia by falsely claiming our nation was founded on original sin. And in seeking to tear open the wounds of past grievances, their aim is to peddle the falsehood of genocide, sow social division, and divide our country by race."
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes in its definition of genocide the forcible transfer of children from one ethnic group to families of another.
Scholars have long debated whether the legal definition of genocide adequately captures the full scope of harm inflicted on Indigenous peoples, including massacres and the forced removal of children for assimilation.
Last year, the Yoorrook Justice Commission — Australia's first truth-telling body — found that Aboriginal people in Victoria had been subjected to genocide at the hands of colonisers.
In response, the Victorian Government formally apologised to Victorian First Peoples for the harm inflicted by the state.
