Channel 10 boss tells staff Australia Day is ‘not a day to celebrate’

Channel 10 boss has told staff the network will not be celebrating Australia Day and has told staff to come to work rather than take the day off.

The channel’s chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, refused to call Jan. 26 Australia Day in an email sent to editorial and programming staff last week.

Ms McGarvey, the executive vice president of Paramount Australia and New Zealand, told staff it was “not a day to celebrate” and encouraged staff to work rather than take the day off.

“At Paramount ANZ we aim to create a safe workplace where cultural differences are valued, understood and respected,” she wrote in the email, The Australian reported.

The Channel 10 boss has told staff the network will not be celebrating Australia Day (pictured are Channel 10 stars Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris)

“For our indigenous people, as an organization, we recognize that January 26 is not a public holiday. We recognize that there has been a tumultuous history, particularly around this date and the recognition of this date as Australia Day.’

Ms McGarvey said staff could choose to work through the National Day if they didn’t feel comfortable celebrating it and could take another day off instead.

“We recognize that January 26 evokes different emotions among our employees across the organization, and we are receptive to employees who may not feel comfortable marking the day as a holiday,” the email reads .

The network boss insisted that those wanting to celebrate Australia Day “reflect and respect the different perspectives and viewpoints of all Australians”.

Channel 10 was praised for using traditional Indigenous names for capital cities during a weather report during NAIDOC week in July.

Network staff have been told they are welcome to work over the Australia Day holiday (pictured is news anchor Sandra Sully).

Instead of Sydney, the presenter read the forecast for Gadigal and for Melbourne, the city was referred to by its traditional name, Naarm.

The network first changed its weather map to include traditional names last year and was immediately praised for the choice by many Australians.

The celebration of Australia Day has been controversial in recent years, with many calling for the date to be changed in relation to Indigenous Australians.

Various councils across the country have boycotted the holiday, saying it does not align with their views.

January 26, 1788 was the day the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove and Governor Arthur Phillip raised a Union Jack flag.

The date is becoming increasingly controversial in Australia, with many indigenous people marking it as a day of mourning, instead referring to it as “Invasion Day”.

Local councils will not be forced to hold naturalization ceremonies on January 26 after Labor scrapped a controversial rule by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Councils can now hold naturalization ceremonies anytime between January 23-29.

Australia Day celebrations have been controversy in recent years, with many calling for the date to be changed in relation to Indigenous Australians (pictured this year’s Australia Day celebrations on the Gold Coast).

Merri-bek Council in north Melbourne recently announced that it would no longer hold naturalization ceremonies on January 26 and instead hold a mourning ceremony to recognize the experiences of Indigenous Australians.

“Just the idea that on this day we’re celebrating, having parties and welcoming new people to this country is quite shameful,” Councilman James Conlan said at a council meeting earlier this month.

“In a profoundly twisted irony…the Council asks First Nations elders to conduct their culturally significant welcoming ceremony on a day that marks their own disposition.”

Merri-bek Council is the third Melbourne council to drop Australia Day citizenship ceremonies, after Yarra and Darebin councils did the same in 2017.

These two councils are not permitted to hold citizenship ceremonies at any time of year by order of the then coalition federal government.

Melbourne City Council also voted in September to support the federal government in changing the date of Australia Day.

Citizenship ceremonies will continue to be held in the city on January 26, but the council will also support efforts to recognize First Nations perspectives of the day.

Sydney’s Inner West Council and Melbourne’s Moreland have also canceled their Australia Day events this year, while Byron Bay Council has moved its citizenship ceremony to 25 January.

Meanwhile, Channel 10 is struggling with ratings as questions are now being raised about the station’s viability.

Things are so bad that the network has been forced to cancel its annual Christmas party, it was first revealed by Daily Mail Australia.

The ailing organization is now officially Australia’s fourth free-to-air network, having placed behind ABC in the ratings race.

Channel 10 is struggling with ratings as questions are now being raised about the station’s profitability (pictured is The Project presenter Hamish Macdonald).

10 just posted its lowest commercial share since OzTam ratings began with a network share of just 22.1 percent, well behind its rivals at Nine and Seven.

As Spin Doctors burgeons, the network has a younger audience than its competitors, with Nine and Seven both hitting 10 in total people and their main demographic under 50.

A series of failures only increased his suffering. Shows like The Real Love Boat, The Challenge Australia and The Traitors were all flops.

The Bachelor franchise hasn’t taken off in recent years, and the latest installment, The Bachelors, was deemed so bad by programming bosses that it was pushed back to January.

The Bachelor franchise hasn’t taken off in recent years, and the latest installment – The Bachelors – was deemed so bad by programming bosses that it was pushed back to January