Stan Grant has stepped down permanently from his role as host of ABC’s Q+A, after two months on leave due to racial abuse.
Patricia Karvelas will take over permanently.
ABC news director Justin Stevens said Grant, 59, would continue to work on new projects for the national broadcaster.
“We want to do everything we can to support Stan and make sure he can play a big role in Australian media,” Stevens said on Monday.
He has the ability to steer our media toward a kinder and more constructive conversation. In Wiradjuri ‘Diramalang’ means teacher and leader.
‘Stan Grant, a proud Wiradjuri man, is both of those things and I look forward to seeing what he does in the future.
Stan Grant is pictured with wife Tracey Holmes
Stan Grant has stepped down permanently from his role as ABC’s Q+A host, two months after resigning over racial abuse.
‘Patricia Karvelas has been doing an outstanding job as fill-in host and we are delighted that she has agreed to continue in that role.’
An ABC spokeswoman said Grant is on leave with no return date.
The former Q+A host announced in May that he would step down after being racially abused during a panel discussing colonialism ahead of King Charles’ coronation.
The ABC has reportedly received more than 1,000 complaints over its coverage of the May 6 ‘disrespectful’ coronation, which has linked the British monarchy since 1788 with the dispossession of indigenous people.
In terms of coverage, Grant said viewers were subjected to ‘relentless racial slurs’ aimed at him because he was Aboriginal.
‘The ABC filed an official complaint on Twitter this year about the relentless racial slurs I was subjected to,’ he said.
‘I am not above criticism. I occupy a privileged and prominent place in the media — I should criticize.
‘And I’m not thin-skinned. Natives learn to tough it out. That is the price of living.
‘Over the years I have been a media target for racism and paid a heavy price. For now, I want no part of it – I’m leaving.
‘For how long? I don’t know I don’t take time out because of racism – I won’t give racists satisfaction.’
Grant also took aim at ABC, saying he didn’t feel supported.
‘Not one ABC executive has publicly denied writing or telling lies about me,’ he said.
The former Q+A host announced in May that he would step down after being racially abused during a panel discussing colonialism ahead of King Charles’ coronation.
Grant took aim at the ABC when he announced he would be stepping down, claiming he did not feel supported by the broadcaster.
‘I do not blame any individual; It is an institutional failure.’
In his closing remarks on his final Q+A show in May, Grant said he was ‘down right now’, but he would bounce back and challenged the media to do better.
‘You may come to me again – and I will meet you with the love of my people,’ he said.
‘Don’t mistake our love for weakness, it’s our strength. We have never stopped loving and fighting for justice and truth.’
The ABC’s independent ombudsman has cleared the broadcaster of breaching editorial standards during its coverage of the King’s coronation.
In January 1992 Grant, aged 28, became the first Aboriginal host of a commercial prime time TV program as the frontman of Seven’s Real Life Current Affairs programme, which briefly followed Mike Willis’s A Current Affair on Nine in 1993.
He later hosted Today Tonight on the same network and was Seven’s European correspondent before moving to Hong Kong to present for CNN.
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