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The Racial Hatred Act: Case study 3

 case study3pauline hanson's maiden speech

Introduction:

  • media response to Pauline Hanson's maiden speech to Parliament
  • excerpts from Pauline
    Hanson's maiden speech

Reports/Comment:

Please note that none of the reports in the case studies have been the
subject of complaints or queries under the Racial Hatred Act.


ACA Producer, David Hurley, explains why
the program declared its hand on the issue:

 "Quotation Mark"

Ordinarily we might not have had Ray say it as definitively as he did.
I don't think it's up to us to give a philosophical or social view (about
multiculturalism and Aboriginal issues) but, in this case, we thought it
was better to be up front with Ray's view. We've never made a secret of
his participation in the reconciliation movement but we also know the depth
and breadth of the program we run here and no one could say we're running
a cause. We've run a pretty fair mix on Aboriginal issues over the years.

We had a taped story anyway with the vox pops and bits of Hanson's speech
and, right up to the last minute, we were moving heaven and earth to get
her on. Until her office stated quite bluntly that she wouldn't do it because
Ray was on the Reconciliation Council, they were saying time was a factor.
That's hard to believe because she in the end did three separate interviews
with the three state-based hosts of (Channel 7's) Today Tonight in Brisbane,
Melbourne and Sydney. That's unheard of in my experience - for a politician
to go to the trouble of doing essentially the same interview three times
for local versions of a program. When it became clear that she wasn't going
to come on we figured we should explain why she wasn't on the program.
Because establishing why she wasn't there led inexorably to where he stood,
we chose to allow him to express his views. He hasn't done it often, but
it has happened before.

In the circumstances of her refusal to come on, and the reason she gave,
it was imperative for us to be up front about Ray's view on that part of
the debate. We make no apology for that.

 "Quotation Mark"

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