The admission comes as a chief 10 executive eyes for The Project to include more drama through 2022.
Political journalist and The Project panellist Peter van Onselen has expressed regret for writing a controversial column following 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame’s decision to not smile in a photo-op with Prime Minister Scott Morrison ahead of the 2022 AOTY ceremony.
In a podcast interview with Tom Ravlic on the Critical Line Item with Tom Ravlic, van Onselen said on reflection of the ordeal that followed the column being published, he no longer finds his initial commentary for The Australian necessary.
Van Onselen said:
“I think it was probably unnecessary for me to bother to write the opinion piece. To say all of those things. I can just think it.”
While he asserts he still holds his viewpoint taken in the column, van Onselen clarified his regret for it did not come because of the debate between himself and The Project panelist Carrie Bickmore and guest Amy Remeikis.
“They didn’t change my mind. I’m still very firm, personally, of the view that [Tame’s actions were] uncalled for, if I could put it that way. And inappropriate, and she shouldn’t have done it.
“That’s different I should say to saying that on reflection I wouldn’t have written the opinion piece because I didn’t like the blow back that I got, I don’t care about that. That’s not a reason I wouldn’t write it on reflection.
“Seeing how strongly people feel about it doesn’t change my view. But it probably has changed my view on whether it needed to be written.”
When prompted to explain further by Ravlic, van Onselen said writing the article became as bad as the actions Tame displayed in the first place.
He said:
“In a sense, me on my side of the ledger of society to write about it, became me being, I would argue – people won’t like this – as bad as Grace Tame choosing to act the way she acted, which I’m critical of.”
In his The Australian column written last Tuesday, van Onselen criticised why Tame would even attend the Australian of the Year event at the Prime Minister’s Lodge only to act, “ungracious, rude and childish”.
Later that day he appeared as a panellist for The Project, where a heated debate about Tame’s actions and van Onselen’s column ensued between Bickmore and Remeikis.
During the segment, Remeikis told van Onselen:
“Your column today [was] devastating to so many people.
“Women constantly have to come out talk about their trauma, talk about their position, talk about not being taken seriously, scream the roof down get to the point where I’m almost crying on national television to talk about this because we’re constantly being told how we should act, who we should think about and who perhaps should be seen in our place.”
Bickmore also weighed in, criticising some of the language used by van Onselen in the op-ed.
“You spoke about how she acted as a child. You know when she should have been able to act as a child? When she was a child. But she was preyed upon by a man and lost part of herself in that.
“I’m unsure how that article today helps when I’m assuming, like the entire nation, you want violence against women and children to end?”
The segment went viral on social media, triggering a national response from all sides of the debate and generating 1.6K re-tweets from The Project’s original tweet promoting “THAT moment”.
After the segment got people talking, 10Viacom CBS’ chief content officer and executive vice president, Beverley McGarvey told The Australian the panel show, which has been struggling with a decline in ratings in recent years, will have many more on-air heated discussions in 2022.
She welcomed the diverse range of voices, panellists and guests on the program, each with their “own opinion”, and dispelled suggestion the debate was manufactured.
McGarvey said the program “didn’t create those conversations” such as the van Onselen-Bickmore-Remeikis one, but did assert viewers should expect to see more of these robust exchanges in the leadup to the federal election.
Both 10 and The Project would be looking to increase their ratings numbers this year, after the network fell well behind Seven and Nine in 2021.
OzTAM figures showed Seven finished the ratings year with a 38.6% share of the commercial audience, ahead of Nine on 37.8% and Ten on 23.6%.
McGarvey said:
“It is more competitive than ever before to get people’s attention and to get them to engage with our content.”
TV Blackbox co-editor and 4BC producer, Rob McKnight, said more drama on 10’s panel show was a strong method worth pursuing in exchange for better ratings.
“Bev is right in that the show needs more discussions like this. Get rid of all the over produced packages and have more conversations like this. If the Project wants to get ratings, this is the way to do it.
“The night the show lost its playback system the hosts actually had to have discussions — and it was engaging television.”
McKnight also weighed in on suggestions van Onselen may quit the program, especially after fellow The Project panellists Lisa Wilkinson and Tommy Little weighed in on the debate outside of the program.
“I can’t see how he can continue on the show when Lisa and Carrie have turned on him publicly. Will he want to work with them? Will they want to work with him? I can’t imagine it’s a comfortable place for him to be when he’s sitting at that desk.
But if the drama=ratings formula is the action plan for The Project moving forward, 10 might be keen for him to stay.
You can listen to the full podcast between Peter van Onselen and Tom Ravlic on the Critical Line Item with Tom Ravlic, here.
