Protesters demand 10 sack 'Kerri-Anne KKKennerley' following racism row - The Sydney Morning Herald

Protesters gathered outside Network 10's offices in Pyrmont on Tuesday morning to demand the broadcaster sack Studio 10 presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

The TV veteran was labelled a "racist" by fellow panellist Yumi Stynes on Monday's episode, and further criticised by activists and online viewers, after suggesting Saturday's Invasion Day protesters had done nothing to support Australia's Indigenous communities in "the outback where children, where babies and five-year-olds are being raped".

On Tuesday, around 30 protesters – holding posters and banners with slogans including "KAK is racist" and "Kerri-Anne KKKennerley" – called on 10 to sack the Logie Hall of Famer.

"F--- Kerri-Anne, f--- her racist views and anyone that supports them," one speaker told the rally.

"Keep standing up against what is wrong – if it's wrong, you say it's wrong," another speaker said.

Protesters outside Network 10 outraged by Kerri-Anne Kennerley's comments about Indigenous issues.Credit:Nine

Hersha Kadkol, ethno-cultural officer at the National Union of Students, said she attended the rally because "people like Kerri-Anne Kennerley should not be able to say comments like this without contestation".

"She is not raising some kind of legitimate concern about Indigenous communities," she said. "To say that those people [who took part in marches on Saturday] don't legitimately care about Australian Indigenous communities, that's a lie.

"It's trying to delegitimise the growing movement of solidarity that non-Indigenous people are showing, and saying that Indigenous people are to blame for the conditions they're facing, the discrimination they're facing... That's a racist lie that needs to be challenged."

Another attendee, Indigenous photojournalist Barbara McGrady, said Aboriginal people are "sick and tired of mainstream media controlling the narrative and telling our story".

"KAK is just the voice of a long line of racist, ignorant rhetoric among the power elites," she said.

The protesters called on 10 to sack Kennerley.Credit:Nine

Kennerley addressed the backlash early on Tuesday's episode of Studio 10, taking issue with Stynes' retort.

"Throwing words around can be dangerous and very, very hurtful. More importantly it is detrimental to solving this horrible issue," she said.

She also put a divisive bent on a popular slogan chanted by Saturday's protesters, telling viewers: "I just want to say: I am, always have been, and always will be, Australian."

Kerri-Anne Kennerley addresses yesterday's backlash on Tuesday's Studio 10.Credit:Ten

Later in the episode, Kennerley doubled down on her views in a debate alongside two Aboriginal commentators, former Greens MP Lidia Thorpe and Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

While Price supported Kennerley's call for focus to be shifted from the Australia Day debate to supporting victims of abuse and violence in Aboriginal communities, Thorpe said such claims missed the point being made by Saturday's protesters.

"It's about truth-telling. If we want to talk about rape and murder, we have to go back... What happened to us 200 years ago still impacts us today," she said.

She also challenged Kennerley to give up her "white privilege" and pay a visit to the remote communities she was speaking about, to which Kennerley agreed.

Stynes, meanwhile, opted out of Tuesday's episode, saying in an Instagram post that she "decided to give myself the day off".

"This is not because of what happened between Kerri-Anne and I. I am feeling stable and calm and like I'm on the right side of history," she wrote.

Robert Moran is an entertainment reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age