Australians have been shocked by a racist slur scrawled on a Qantas magazine and left in the pocket of an airline seat.
Indigenous Olympian and former federal senator Nova Peris has shared a photo of the magazine taken by her husband Scott Appleton as he flew from Alice Springs to Darwin on Tuesday.
The magazine was in the seat pocket for the elderly lady next to Mr. Appleton and appeared to be a snide response to the Welcome to Country broadcast the airline aired before each landing.
The husband of Indigenous Olympian former federal senator Nova Peris was shocked to see the racist scribble left on the cover of a Qantas flight magazine
The message stated that “no one respects indigenous people” and labeled them “lazy” with a racial slur.
“Stop the stupid respect for Elders bulls***,” the second line read.
“Let’s hope Qantas tells their cleaning companies to remove Qantas books from planes with racist messages written on them,” Ms Peris wrote.
The commentators also expressed their dissatisfaction.
“Horrible, ignorant racist statement, the magazine definitely should have been seen by the staff and taken down,” one person wrote.
‘Horrible. I’m so sorry,” said another.
“Cleaning staff need to be more vigilant, but people also need to show respect for others,” said another.
Mr Appleton is said to have alerted a flight attendant to the defaced magazine, which was subsequently removed.
“They handled the situation very well and were extremely sensitive in the way it was handled,” he told National Indigenous Times.
Nova Peris has called on Qantas to ensure cleaning staff are more diligent in removing racist graffiti
Qantas expressed shock and regret over the defaced magazine.
“We are shocked that someone would make these racist comments,” a Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo News.
“We are committed to supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and are proud that our crew recognizes the country for every flight that lands in Australia.”