Culture

Triple M’s Presenters Are Speaking Out Against The ‘Ozzest 100’ And Australia Day

Even Triple M's own presenters hate it.

by Sam Langford  27 December 2017
triple m

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It’s been just over a week since Triple M made the fairly tone-deaf announcement that it would be starting its own triple j-style countdown on Australia Day, and they’ve spent that week getting slammed for it.

And a bunch of Triple M’s own presenters have made their views on January 26 pretty clear. Three high profile presenters have made public statements about the inappropriateness of holding any kind of Australia Day celebration on January 26, given the considerable pain the day holds for Indigenous Australians.

Wil Anderson, who co-hosts Triple M’s Hot Breakfast, was quick to slam his employer’s move on Twitter, writing last week that he was “terribly disappointed” and had made that clear to Triple M.

In early December Drive hosts Mick Molloy and Jane Kennedy used their show to emphatically support triple j’s decision to change the date of the Hottest 100.

The comments were made before Triple M’s Ozzest 100 announcement was made, but are being circulated widely in the week since the station’s announcement.

The pair were joined on the program by Indigenous musician Dan Sultan, who has made his stance on Australia Day very clear in past.

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“I think it’s great,” Sultan said of triple j’s decision to move the date. “To call it a political issue is disrespectful uneducated and misguided.”

“It’s just about humanity — basically the day is a very sad day for Aboriginal people, and what they’ve done is a beautiful gesture and it’s shown a lot of respect and I’m very happy with it.”

Molloy and Kennedy both agreed with that sentiment, with Molloy adding “I’m speaking for myself here, but I would like to see Australia Day moved so everyone can enjoy it. If you want to do it, include everyone.”

In the meantime, there’s a grassroots push to vote A.B. Original and Dan Sultan’s song ‘January 26’ (which is, you guessed it, about the need to change the date of Australia Day) to the top of the Ozzest 100. If you’d like, you can do that here.