Public figures often find themselves in the spotlight, especially when their actions challenge societal norms and expectations.

A recent incident at a high-profile event has left attendees stunned and sparked heated discussions about respect and cultural sensitivity.

What unfolded during the ceremony has since become a focal point of controversy, raising questions about accountability and intention.

Sam Newman has been accused of disrespect during an Acknowledgement of Country at an Australia Day event in Victoria.

The former Footy Show host and AFL figure attended the function at Government House on Wednesday, where Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner delivered the Acknowledgement of Country.

Witnesses claimed Newman turned his back on the speech and began walking towards the exit.

Sam Newman criticised for controversial behaviour. Image source: Getty/Darrian Traynor/Stringer

By the time the governor had finished her address, Newman returned to his seat.

During the remainder of the governor’s speech, Newman reportedly faced away from the stage and appeared to be taking photos of his companion, Sue Stanley.

A guest in attendance stated that Newman was the only person among the hundreds present who did not watch the governor’s address.

Newman has been contacted for comment regarding the incident.

Newman is no stranger to controversy, particularly regarding his remarks about Indigenous culture.

In September 2024, he urged Australians to boo the Welcome to Country ceremony at the AFL grand final.

Earlier in January, Newman criticised a dedicated Telstra hotline for Indigenous customers during his podcast, You Cannot Be Serious.

His co-host recounted a story about a non-Indigenous woman who allegedly claimed Indigenous heritage to skip the queue, to which Newman responded: ‘Why doesn’t everyone do it? Indigenous people - why do they get through while the rest of us wait in line?’

‘This will get to - you’ll go to a film, and there’ll be a queue for Caucasian people. And over here, there’ll be a queue for anyone whose skin colour is not white.’

Telstra denied the allegations, stating: ‘Telstra’s First Nations Connect Hotline is supported by a small dedicated team to service our most remote customers.

‘It also provides culturally appropriate customer service to our First Nations customers.’

In the past, Newman has made headlines for his outspoken views.

In 2018, he shared that he considered running for Lord Mayor of Melbourne, proposing to tackle homelessness, clean up graffiti, and oppose what he described as minority group agendas.

‘We get bogged down with delusional psychotic anarchists who push all sorts of agendas because they have a point to plead and usually the general interest of the community is thrown under the bus,’ Newman said.

‘I’m sure that the majority of people are worried about the homeless in the CBD, the graffiti, [and councils] using motorists as a tool to balance the budget.’

Watch his response in the video below.

Source: Youtube/Sky News Australia​

Key Takeaways

• Sam Newman faced backlash for reportedly walking out during an Acknowledgement of Country speech at an Australia Day event, then later turning his back and taking photos while the Governor spoke.
• Newman has been criticised in the past for comments on Indigenous culture, including urging Australians to boo the Welcome to Country ceremony at the AFL grand final and criticising Telstra’s First Nations hotline.
• Telstra defended the hotline, stating it provides culturally appropriate services to remote Indigenous customers, rejecting claims that it allows callers to skip queues.
• Newman has previously expressed controversial views on social issues, including opposing minority group agendas and considering a political run to address homelessness and graffiti in Melbourne.

Do moments like these reflect a broader societal issue? Are they simply isolated incidents of personal choice?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

[Towing]

He is probably laughing at the publicity he is getting. Behaviour like this is best ignored.

 

[Yani]

Show pony looking for attention. Regardless of the subject. With no regard of the fallout or harm from his glib comments. This Ships Anchor does not deserve his 15 minutes of fame. Please do not give this neanderthal any more oxygen.

 

[mylittletibbies]

Respect where due and keep your own beliefs regarding colour or ethnicity out of politics. If you don’t like something go somewhere else or don’t go to that event at all. People are people regardless of colour & we should all be living our own lives the way we want, not according to what someone tells us to do. I have no gripe about colour, creed or ethnicity but behave properly and respectfully towards one another.

I agree with you, but tell me. where can you go without having "Welcome to Country" shoved in your face.
I was born here, I don't need to be welcomed with some made up rubbish
Do other countries do this sort of thing.?
Why do 95% of the population need to kowtow to 5%. This whole rigmarole has got out of hand.
Work gets held up on projects because of "sacred sites", or you might upset the spirit in the river.
We got told fairy stories too when we were young, and then we grew up!!
And our govt waste a fortune going along with all this stupid rot.
Sorry, no insult to my indigenous friends, many of whom go along with me, but really!!!

 

[Nellcor]

I am like many people sick and tired of the meaningless twaddle that is called Welcome to country.I think a lot of indigenous Aussie’s also feel the same. Yet this does not excuse Newman ,s rudeness

 

[Bridgit]

He is a rude misogynist who opens his mouth about sensitive things without considering whether he will hurt anyone. Personally it’s better not hearing anything about him bcos I’ve never heard anything good about him ever. Guess he must be quite unhappy

Good for a laugh sometimes - he tells it how he sees it - like most of us!

 

[Luckyus]

Welcome to our country should only be performed for the people at the naturalisation ceremonies with a 2 minute speech or visiting dignitaries. I will not acknowledge this ceremony as I was born here.

I got my Welcome to Country, when Customs gave me a bill for dutiable goods. And whether I like it or not I'm still paying for Indigenous people ever since albeit indirectly through ongoing taxes, so climb down from your Pious Pulpits and good on Sam.

 

[Yeoey]

How can anyone say that if you don't like it, don't go? Is there anywhere now that it isn't done? Should we just sit locked in our rooms with no communication at all because it is now at every event and meeting that I have been to, turn on the TV and it's on prior to some programs starting. I want to know why I'm being welcomed to my own country? The government is dividing our country with this rubbish. Not a week goes by without some sort of remembrance or celebration for First Nations People. And please, leave Australia Day alone, it's the one day that we get together as one to celebrate as a country, not a race, and it is proving to be getting a lot more popular. As usual, we are being run by the minority while the majority just sits on their hands and allows it.

 

[bluesbrother]

More balls than any of them.​

Why is my t-shirt more offensive to our prime minister than a 50-year assault on democracy? - from Crikey​

The boy who lived in public housing comes to die on a corporately owned hill.
Grace Tame
Jan 29, 2025

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, fiancee Jodie Haydon and 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame at the Lodge, January 25 (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)
"According to Anthony Albanese, decrying the Murdoch empire is more disrespectful than destabilising democracies, destroying the planet, disinforming the public and dodging millions of dollars in taxes for decades.
No matter their stripes, one thing almost all politicians seem to have in common is a selective memory — that and their inevitable capitulation to the bloated billionaires who own the majority of our land, its natural resources and our elected officials.
At the beginning of 2022, an election year, I was filmed side-eyeing Scott Morrison, Anthony’s opponent, during a morning tea hosted at The Lodge for the Australian of the Year Award nominees. The national media landscape exploded.
That evening at the ceremony, Anthony asked to take a photo with me. He promptly posted the image of us smiling to his social media channels, capitalising on the hype and drawing a stark contrast between himself and the duplicitous thug he hoped to beat at the polls. When Anthony was asked by journalists what he thought of my behaviour towards Scott, he insisted I didn’t need his advice (as if I’d take it regardless).
While the fallout from that episode still dogs me, I regret nothing. I wonder if Anthony does. How the mighty are forgetful and forced to obey their even mightier masters.
Fast forward to January 25 this year, when Anthony Albanese, now prime minister, hosted a morning tea for the Australian of the Year Award nominees at The Lodge, where I wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “FUCK MURDOCH”. Once again, the not-so-free press erupted into a frenzy.
This time, Anthony wasn’t so pleased. My message to Rupert, the malignant media mogul with disproportionate influence over public discourse, is apparently less convenient to his current campaign.
Among Anthony’s criticisms was that my explicit t-shirt “was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for”, namely the award nominees, their guests, fellow alumni and National Australia Day Council members in attendance.
Surely these were not the same people who asked to take selfies with me wearing the t-shirt in the courtyard, who commended me for taking a stand and staying true to myself? These people — including medical doctors, academics, scientists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, athletes, advocates and even a former soldier who proudly showed me their own anti-Murdoch merchandise? As I was leaving The Lodge, one of the prime minister’s staff remarked, “There are many of us here who wish we could wear that shirt.” Afterwards, journalists wanted to pose beside me.
Each of us at the event has one thing in common: we are trying to make a positive difference. It’s all well and good for hardworking individuals and grassroots organisations to tinker around the edges of broken systems, but we are fighting an unfair fight. Hovering above us is a small cohort whose concentration of wealth is big enough to fund any number of groundbreaking, lifesaving initiatives, but who consistently choose to grow their own power instead. Should any of our causes threaten their way of life, they can simply derail them and rewrite history.
Anthony claimed it wasn’t the appropriate time or place to dress as I did. It seems there’s never an appropriate time or place to tell the truth. Maybe Mother Nature should make an appointment, because it seems it’s never the right moment to say that the glaciers are melting, or that the earth’s temperature is rising, or that non-native plants and trees are the kindling of uncontrollable fires responsible for destroying thousands of homes worldwide.
Maybe the general public should make an appointment to talk more about the overwhelming, growing body of scientific data on human-driven climate change that has been available to us for more than 50 years but which has been drenched in doubt, if not flatly denied, by the likes of Rupert Murdoch.
Being a diehard St Kilda supporter, I’m accustomed to disappointment. Although I can guarantee there’s not a single AFL team with weaker knees than the Commonwealth. We’ve all watched in disgust over the past 16 months as the once-impassioned politician, who used to make speeches in Parliament supporting Palestinian liberation, has overseen the contortion of his government’s PR apparatus in defence of Israel’s genocidal operation. There are no moral “wars”, only economic ones.
We are a spineless colony of the United States, whose overblown defence economy — propped up by warrior conservative powerbrokers like Murdoch, panicked by the slightest whiff of social revolution — dictates the play. Israel is also a proxy, using the open-air prison of Gaza as a laboratory for its booming weapons and surveillance technology industries so it can export a “battle-tested” colonial occupation model to the rest of the world. Australia is on a long client list, one that includes Arab nations that buy Israel’s products to use on their own people.
It alarms me how little people seem to know about Rupert, a man who owns far more than the news. If anything, his media empire is a front for his various business ventures. It’s the instrument he uses to promote policies that benefit him while brainwashing the everyday person into believing they’re also good for them.
I’ve read several biographies of Murdoch, all more akin to a horror novel than any work of nonfiction. For over half a century, he has owned and controlled the biggest portion of the public conscience. He is an oil baron, an inside trader, a propagandist and a political puppet master. He spearheaded the media campaign to topple Gough Whitlam, resulting in a mass exodus of newspaper staff following Gough’s dismissal in 1975.
In 1983 Rupert was introduced to Ronald Reagan, whose infamous era of deregulation helped transform Murdoch into an untouchable king. Their connection was engineered by Roy Cohn, a ruthless New York-based attorney who defended mob bosses and, most notably, served as chief counsel for Joseph McCarthy. Cohn was also a key mentor of Donald Trump, whose initial foray into politics was in the early 1980s when he tried to buy News of the World to help sway the public in his favour. He was bested by Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch’s arch-nemesis.
It would be another 30 years before the first Trump administration began in 2017, proudly brought to you by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. Now here we are again, watching helplessly as history repeats itself from the bleachers, behind the other oligarchs who conspired to manufacture the outcome while sitting in the front row.
Today, Rupert — whose estimated wealth exceeds $20 billion — sits on boards with former CIA directors and defence secretaries. Despite failing to guarantee his son Lachlan as his successor at the expense of his other children — and despite the Murdoch-owned News Group Newspapers recently being forced to admit unlawful activities and apologise for surveillance, misuse of private information and phone-hacking — Rupert Murdoch remains with most of his fangs intact, the ageing demon in human skin that he is.
When presented with a petition that received more than half a million signatures demanding a royal commission into the Murdoch regime, Anthony Albanese did nothing.
In the past two days, there’s been more outrage over my silly t-shirt than this genuinely outrageous reality, or the fact that on January 26, footage of young boys referring to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as “slaves” and “n*****s” flooded the internet. Australia’s mainstream media machine has once again proven itself to be a vacuous, hypocritical, self-serving vortex of exponential waste, ironically ensuring that my point was made over and over and over again. The imperialist hegemony is more afraid of equity, justice, truth, peace and a sense of humour than it is of the world literally burning.
Anthony’s predictable response to my two-word statement has reinforced just how poisonous Murdoch’s grip on the Western world still is. It’s also revealed that while Australia casts itself as a laidback larrikin, game for a laugh, it is in fact a cowardly cop bought by the illusion of civility politics.
Still, there is a bigger picture worth prioritising. While I don’t subscribe to the two-party system, I’m not naive enough to think it will suddenly dissolve. Clearly, the Murdoch propaganda outfit is backing Peter Dutton, who would be a more dangerous prime minister than Anthony Albanese.
Big conversations start with simple, effective messages. There will always be detractors. Pushback is a sign of progress. When I frowned at Scott in 2022, my mother gave me an absolute bath — she was fuming. She’s since come around and has the image on her phone case. After I wore the anti-Murdoch shirt, she sent me a text saying, “Lovely photo of you and the PM and wife”. I don’t need the approval of the prime minister or the general public. I am surrounded by people who love me for who I am. We are all equally human.
The prime minister doesn’t need my advice, and I’m sure he isn’t interested in it either. I don’t envy him or his job. I can only imagine it’s a poison chalice, and I’ve no desire to hold another one of those. I just hope he remembers that while pressure and privilege may come from the plutocracy, in this country (for now at least), his power still comes from the people. "

About the Author​

Grace Tame is an Australian activist and advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, bestselling author, CEO of The Grace Tame Foundation, and was the 2021 Australian of the Year.

 

[Josephine B]

I can’t bear Sam but I agree with him in this instance. I’m so over this wretched country nonsense! And how long do we have to apologise for? I did nothing wrong and treat all colours and creeds with courtesy and respect but this endless,endless greeting country bullsh*t before every function,before every Australian tv program,before most programs on the ABC,honestly,it’s getting old and annoying and people are beginning to resent it.

Exactly and this is what IS DIVIDING US.

 

[magpie1]

This little smart arse is so full of her herself.....she's going to self destruct from over inflation. Blessed be the day, we've seen and heard it from others in the past and none ever last the distance. Keep Blowin' little one and you'll do us all a favour in the end.

 

[Luckyus]

Sorry folks but I know this will upset a lot of people. Sam has always been a moron and he doesn't get any better the older he gets. What makes me so angry is the amount of people who persistently knock anything that's Aboriginal. Have a bloody good look at the world as it is today. WW2 saw the Jews slaughted in the gas chambers... now it seems ok for the same people to blow up other countries. How about we look at our own country,,,, we invite anybody and his dog here but if they come on their own they are locked up. People come here for "a better life". In that case WHY DON'T THEY TRY TO BE LIKE US? This stinking hot weather yet people come and don't try to be real Aussies.... eg Burkas, women covered from head to foot except for an eye slit. Indians with their turbans, people behaving like they still live in their homeland and this weekend we see males mostly teens ,claiming to love Hitler yet the people who were killed by the English and who claim Australia belongs to them get shit on. The American Indians have their Peace Treaty and so does the Maori's. What have our people got? NOTHING AND BY THE WAY I'M WHITE WITH IRISH CONVICT BACKGROUND. My GGGrandfather had only one charge against him.. stealing bread to feed his 5 kids after the POMS stole his home, land, sheep and cow. You can look this up in the official records. I also think of the Pollies trotting around the world, handing over millions of dollars while our own people are homeless and starve. I'm glad I'm on this end of my life because I'm fed up with this one.

Your lucky, your ancestor was transported instead of being topped

 

[Knell]

This little smart arse is so full of her herself.....she's going to self destruct from over inflation. Blessed be the day, we've seen and heard it from others in the past and none ever last the distance. Keep Blowin' little one and you'll do us all a favour in the end.

Which part got under your skin LOL