Today’s Brooke Boney addresses Pauline Hanson’s axing: ‘I am so happy to see her gone’
The Today Show’s entertainment reporter and Gamilaroi/Gomeroi woman Brooke Boney has responded to Nine’s decision to cut Pauline Hanson from its contributor lineup, saying she is “so happy” to see Hanson axed.
Speaking on ABC’s Q+A, Boney said some of the comments made by Hanson had left her heartbroken.
What can be done to protect the residents of Melbourne’s locked down towers from further vilification? And what can be to ensure these residents have access to daily necessities? #QandA pic.twitter.com/5u5kLbJz5I
— QandA (@QandA) July 6, 2020
On Monday morning, Hanson appeared in her regular slot on Today and said the residents trapped in the Melbourne housing commission high-rises were “drug addicts” and “alcoholics” and “didn’t speak English” which is why there were being locked in their homes.
Following a video question asking about the backlash, Q+A host Hamish Macdonald asked Boney what she had thought of the comments by Hanson.
“I felt completely heartbroken, I grew up in housing commission. I was thinking about all those kids sitting at home and watching or all of those people trapped in their apartments watching and thinking ‘This is what Australia thinks of us, this is what the rest of our country thinks, that we’re alcoholics and drug addicts’. And that’s disgusting,” said Boney.
“I’m all for free speech and I think when people have different perspectives and different opinions, most of the time it does drive argument forward, or debate forward, or policy forward. But when you use it to vilify people or to be deliberately mean spirited, that to me is disgusting.”
The panel, which also featured Mad As Hell host Shaun Micallef, shadow minister for the environment and water Terri Butler, and former politician Christopher Pyne, debated whether there was a place for the opinions of people like Hanson in the media landscape. Boney argued that the comments online proved Hanson was representing her electorate and people who believed the same things she did. Butler disagreed.
“I think that’s a bit of a cop-out, she’s been a public racist since 1996. She used her first maiden speech to say we were in danger of being swamped by Asians and she used her second maiden speech to say we were in danger of being swamped by Muslims. We’re talking about someone here who didn’t just wake up this morning and for the first time say something racist and shows have been platforming her. Free speech is one thing, elevating racism in the discourse is another,” said Butler.
Prior to her regular slot on Today, Hanson was a regular commentator for Seven’s Sunrise. She left that position after an altercation with host David Koch following her comments after the Christchurch massacre.
For anyone looking to get me kicked off more tv and radio shows I'll be appearing on the following:
Tonight:
7:00pm Across Australia with Peter Gleeson
7:30pm @theboltreport with Andrew Bolt
Both @SkyNewsAustTomorrow:
7:30am Marcus Paul on @2SM1269Make sure you tune in! -PH
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) July 6, 2020
Macdonald asked why now was the time to remove her from the media circuit, when she’d been voicing questionable views for years. Boney said Hanson’s time had come, but Pyne argued ratings would always win.
“Ratings is very much the priority of those kinds of shows, or most commercial television, because they want to sell advertising. Pauline Hanson does very well for ratings because she’ll say these kind of totally inappropriate things,” said Pyne.
The final word on the topic was Boney’s, who said Hanson’s report card on morning TV was more than enough to see her removed.
“I am so happy to see her gone. She says awful things about Aboriginal people too that really upset me. And it’s not about me being upset, it’s about someone intentionally being divisive. And they’re ill-informed, they’re just not true, the things that she says. And that’s what’s really upsetting.”
The panel also debated the decision to remove Chris Lilley’s Summer Heights High and Jonah from Tonga from the ABC Iview and Netflix libraries. The wide-ranging conversation, which also touched on the future of statues and the representation of Indigenous people in history, ultimately decided history shouldn’t be censored, but that Lilley’s modern use of racial stereotypes and brownface should never have been supported.
The panel was also asked about the importance of satire and parody, with a question asked about Mad As Hell and the Betoota Advocate and the belief that they better reflect the news than the ‘mainstream media’.
“I only know what I read in the newspaper and see on programs like this, I don’t have any special insight,” said Micallef.
“All we try and do is present as much information as possible in as few words as [are needed] to set up the joke essentially.”
Boney debated the idea that mainstream media doesn’t provide the information consumers want, or sells them incorrect or biased information.
“It’s really difficult to see mainstream media always blamed for not delivering news content to people. We get minute by minute breakdowns, we get ratings, we deliver the content that people demand. If you want more excellent content, vote with your feet. Buy newspapers, watch the shows you like and more of them will be made. This isn’t some sort of secret ploy for news content to suffer or something like that. People get what they want,” said Boney.
Brooke fails to see that many people agree with Pauline, which is why they paid her to be on TV regularly. remember more than a million voted for Pauline Hanson. That’s more than tuned into Masterchef last night!
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Ben fails to see that many people strongly agree with Pauline – many more than voted for her or her Party.
Ben states “remember more than a million voted for Pauline Hanson”. No I don’t remember that.
When she ran for a Queensland Senate in 2016 she received 20,927 votes. With preferences that rose to 229,056.
In the 2019 Federal Election Pauline Hanson’s One Nation received 438,587 first preference votes in the House of Representatives, and failed to secure a seat In the Senate Malcolm Roberts was elected a Senator with18,556 first preference votes coupled with 277,558 ticket votes. Nationally her party received 788,203 first preference votes.
Looks like a minority to me.
Based on your ‘logic’ Masterchef should be in Federal Parliament instead!
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Hearing Brooke and (to an extent) Terri Butler speak in an intelligent, articulate and balanced way on Q&A gave me hope for the media and political discourse in this country.
And Pauline would not have received anywhere near as many votes as she did if Channels 7 and 9 did not support her with so much airtime over the last decade. Dancing with the Stars? More like Dancing with the Far Right in Australia.
The stations that have brought us Mega Mondays and the Cash Cow have also brought red-hot hatred into the federal parliament.
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Another example of the left trying to silence voices they don’t like or don’t agree with, and another broadcast celebrating their moral high ground. I don’t agree with what Pauline H said but we need open discussion and debate even if we don’t like what we hear.
Dan Andrew’s also pointed out there are residence in the towers that are reliant on methadone to treat their heroine addiction, and he has provided councilors for those who will suffer alcohol withdrawals and I don’t see him getting struck off anyone’s call sheet.
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Christopher Pyne was right when he said “Ratings is very much the priority of those kinds of shows, or most commercial television, because they want to sell advertising. Pauline Hanson does very well for ratings because she’ll say these kind of totally inappropriate things,” said Pyne.”
Our industry is complicit in spreading racism in this country.
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you can debate facts. you can’t debate opinion.
therein lies the dilemma how would you debate Pauline Hanson?
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That’s a great point @goodone. I contacted the Today Show this morning to see if they would air my view that the sky is actually green and not blue – would you believe that they wouldn’t give me the time of day! Pauline Hanson’s views on race are equally as compelling, so this move doesn’t surprise me one bit.
Back on topic, isn’t it just so comforting to know that this country is a true meritocracy? That way, when immigrants and the generationally poor complain, I know it is solely because they made bad decisions in life! It’s so much easier to write groups of people off as criminals than it is to actually help them, wouldn’t you agree?
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Broadcasters have a duty to provide a platform to those who contribute to furthering our society and Australia. Not those who deduct from it.
Label it as free speech, racism is illegal for a reason.
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