


Brooke Boney on Nine’s Today show.Credit:Nine

Boney suggested national celebrations be changed to "any other date", such as the anniversary of Federation, January 1. "A day that suits more people is probably going to be more uniting," she said.

Nine's new sports presenter Tony Jones countered Boney's suggestion.

"This is where I get not angry about it but upset about it in a lot of ways, is that why should it be an us-versus-them," Jones said, when the panel's discussion turned to the "third-world" living conditions among remote Aboriginal communities.

"We do see white Australians in similar situations, you know, kids going to school without lunch, or without a school uniform," he offered.

"TJ, you know what, the statistics tell us that our lives are harder," Boney shot back.

"It's not me making it up or saying woe is me or feel sorry for me, because I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, but what I'm talking to are the statistics… For it not to be an us-and-them thing, I think that's why we're talking about [the date] changing."

The viral segment, which had already earned around 30,000 views and counting online on Thursday morning, sparked heated debate among viewers of Nine's still flailing show, much of it directed at Today's new recruit.

One angry viewer criticised Boney for greeting viewers in her traditional tongue – a signature on-air address she introduced while presenting at Triple J – and accused Nine of driving "minority views".

Another viewer praised Boney and Today's panel for highlighting "proud Indigenous Australian perspectives" on mainstream TV. "About time," the commenter wrote.

Boney, 31, debuted on Today's team as their entertainment reporter on Monday, in the wake of December's brutal personnel overhaul.

Speaking to this publication earlier this week, she suggested she had some reservations about voicing her Indigenous perspective to the morning program's more conservative viewers.

"There have been so many changes at Today already, I don't want to freak people out and make them think the things they love about their show are changing completely, because they're not… We want people to be comfortable," she said.

She acknowledged, however, the significance of her presence in such a traditionally white-dominated commercial TV landscape.

"The best sort of change happens when people are on board and it happens naturally… Even just being a part of that is a really important step."

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