Remarks from a key figure in the Voice No campaign about Indigenous journalist Stan Grant and independent senator Lidia Thorpe have been condemned and labelled disgusting and grotesque.
Australian Jewish Association head David Adler, who sits on the advisory board of top No outfit Advance with former prime minister Tony Abbott, insists he was not trying to insult the prominent Indigenous pair when he questioned Thorpe’s Aboriginal heritage and repeatedly suggested Grant had artificially darkened his skin.
Days after Grant stepped down as host of the ABC’s Q+A citing racist abuse in May, Adler posted pictures of the Wiradjuri man on social media that he said showed “STAN GRANT’S COMPLEXION SEEMS TO HAVE CHANGED”.
“Look at the 3 pics. Can anyone explain?”
In March, Adler posted the same image with the caption: “IS STAN GRANT DOING ‘BLACK FACE’? If so, why?”
On four occasions in 2022, the Voice opponent, involved in the outfit closely linked to Coalition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, also raised questions about Thorpe’s background.
“What % Aboriginal are you? You appear quite white,” he posted on social media in March 2022. “Not so sure she’s Blak (or Black).”
Adler, who has used his leadership of the Jewish association to castigate other Australian Jewish bodies for supporting the Voice, claimed in January that, “What is ‘racist’ is allowing people to drink themselves to death they bash/rape/murder the women/children & turning a blind eye to it because they are Aboriginal!”
Read the article by Paul Sakkal in The Age.