Stan GrantFASSA (born 30 September 1963) is an Australian 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.
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.[4]
In 2007 he took on the role of co-presenter of the one-hour 6.30 pmSBS 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[5] 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,[6] and in 2013 hosted a nightly late night news programme NewsNight for Sky News Australia, which aired weeknights at 11pm.[7] From 2014 he started hosting Sky News Australia's Reporting Live with Stan Grant at 6pm, 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.[8]
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.[12][13]
In 2018 Grant started hosting a flagship national night current affairs programme, Matter of Fact,[14] on the ABC News TV Channel and ABC News Radio. He was also appointed chief Asia correspondent for the ABC News Network.[15] 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,[16] concurrently with a professorship at Griffith University.[17][18]
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.[20] 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.[21]
In December 2020, Grant hosted a series of episodes about identity for the ABC's long form interview program One Plus One.[22]
In 2021, Grant launched the ABC's China Tonight program – looking at Chinese culture and politics for an Australian audience.[23]
In July 2022, it was announced that Grant will permanently host Q+A from 1 August.[24] 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.[25][26]
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".[27] 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."[28] 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."[28] 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.[29] 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."[30]
Later in 2024, Grant joined The Saturday Paper as a columnist.[31]
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".[45]
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."[46]
In 2002, Grant published a memoir, The Tears of Strangers, which details the political and social changes of Indigenous Australians over the period of 40 years, focusing particularly on generations of the Wiradjuri people.[1]
Grant's second book, Talking to My Country, was published in February 2016. The origins of the book came from the abuse of Adam Goodes in 2015.[48][49] In a review for The Saturday Paper, Talking to My Country was described as "Australia viewed from the riverbank on the edge of town; great affection mixed with discomfort about, 'Advance Australia Fair'" (the national anthem).[50]
The Australian Dream Blood, History and Becoming was published in the Quarterly Essay, November 2016 by Black Inc.[51]
In 2019 Grant published his third book, Australia Day, a follow-up to Talking to My Country about what it means to be Australian.[52][53][54]
On Identity was published in both English and Wiradjuri in 2019, in hardcopy and as an e-book. In it Grant "asks why when it comes to identity he is asked to choose between black and white", and "argues that it is time to leave identity behind and to embrace cosmopolitanism" (catalogue blurb).[55][52][53]
Tell it to the World: An Indigenous Memoir was published in the US in 2019.[56][57]
With the Falling of the Dusk, subtitled A chronicle of the world in crisis, was published in 2021.[58]
Grant was married to Karla Grant with whom he has a daughter, Karla, and two sons.[1][64] 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,[65] 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, Jesse, before moving to Beijing in mainland China with CNN, totalling 14 years in Asia.[66]
Grant, Stan (21 May 2013). "Stan Grant"(audio + text). Conversations with Richard Fidler (Interview). Interviewed by Richard Fidler. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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