‘Sunrise’ Is Being Sued For That Segment Where They Called For Another Stolen Generation

Channel 7, Sunrise host Sam Armytage and conservative radio commentator Prue MacSween are collectively being sued for a March 2018 segment on child removals from Indigenous communities.

The all-white segment (also featuring radio figure Ben Davis) was in reaction to then Assistant Minister for Children David Gillespie announcing a plan to “relax” the rules so it would be easier for “white families”, in particular, to adopt Aboriginal children.

In it, Armytage opens up the segment by suggesting we are in a “post Stolen Generations” era. Given that numbers of Indigenous kids being taken from their families has only risen since Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generation in 2008, this isn’t at all accurate. MacSween then effectively called for another Stolen Generation in a positive comparison, calling it a “no brainer” which was being held up by PC rhetoric.

“Just like the first Stolen Generation, where a lot of children that were taken because it was for their wellbeing, we need to do it again,” she said.

It was highly controversial and resulted in protests outside of Sunrise’s studios — protests that the show literally erased off their broadcast. It was also torn apart by Black Comedy and Get Krack!n, and was later found to be “factually inaccurate” by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, who told Sunrise off for not grounding their on-air apology with the fact they got their facts wrong.

In 2019, a group of nine adults and six children from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory were given an undisclosed amount and on-air apology as footage of them was used in the segment, deemed to be defamatory by linking them to alleged child abuse.

And now, as per SBS News, Sunrise, MacSween and Armytage will be sued in federal court for racial vilification. Led by Aboriginal elder Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, the eight complaints say that settlement negotiations have broken down.

“This shameful, profoundly hurtful and devastating display of racism was broadcast by a commercial television station into homes right across Australia,” wrote Dixon-Grovenor in a statement. “The dignity of all Aboriginal people and children was violated in our very own homes and lounge rooms.”

Speaking to SBS, Channel 7 said they were not yet aware of the lawsuit, and so were unable to comment.

BREAKING: Channel 7, Samantha Armytage and Prue McSween to be sued in Federal Court for Racial Vilification pic.twitter.com/HR4q9IbvXt

— Bizzi Lavelle (@IndigenousX) June 11, 2020