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Channel 10 has apologised to Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after its star Lisa Wilkinson was caught out making disparaging comments about her.
The chief of 10’s owner, Paramount Australia, Beverly McGarvey called the senator to make the apology personally.
Senator Price lashed Wilkinson on Friday after leaked audio emerged of her making “racist” comments and struggling to pronounce the senator’s name during a pre-interview with Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz.
A leaked part of the pre-interview recording shows Wilkinson pointing out the coalition had “preselected over 20 new and wonderfully diverse and strong female candidates like, and what’s her name, Nam … Nampinjumba? (sic). She’s an Indigenous woman.”
In response, Mr Sharaz laughed and said: “She clearly got in. Clearly it was a safe seat.”
“That’s the thing, it was – as soon as I looked at it I thought, ‘Oh, you’re joking’,” Wilkinson said.
Mr Sharaz added: “They’ve been preselected in unwinnable seats.
Mr Llewellyn joined in with a joke about the Coalition preselecting Ms Price, saying: “See, we know brown people.”
Mr Sharaz followed, “It’s like, ‘I’m not racist, I have a black friend’. It’s that argument.”
Wilkinson closed the chat, saying: “And our cleaner’s black.”
Ms Higgins is not heard engaging in this part of the conversation.
On Friday, Senator Price hit back, demanding Wilkinson apologise to her.
Senator Price said Wilkinson was living in an ivory tower and was far removed from real issues pertaining to Indigenous Australians“There are derogatory and racist comments … what would you expect from individuals who belong to the woke,” she told 2GB. “The Project has never been interested in the view of a conservative Indigenous woman from outback Australia. Not once has it demonstrated interest in the concerns I’ve raised.”Senator Price said what had offended her the most was Wilkinson’s suggestion she was some sort of diversity pick. “I would absolutely expect an apology from the 10 network, from Lisa Wilkinson herself. That would be the decent thing,” she said. “Unfortunately, this woke culture allows racism to exist in plain sight.”
Ms McGarvey personally called Senator Nampijinpa Price to apologise on the network’s behalf, Sky News said.
It’s understood McGarvey said the discussion of race did not reflect the values the network stood for and that it shouldn’t have happened.
The apology was on the network’s behalf, but not from Wilkinson.
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