Peter FitzSimons hits back at Stan Grant for mocking wife
Peter Fitzsimons has hit back after ABC political journalist and former friend Stan Grant mocked the writer and his wife Lisa Wilkinson.
Grant took aim at the couple’s annual harbourside party, which usually occurs on the highly controversial January 26.
“What a woke leftie love-in that was: actors, writers, couple of ex-Wallabies (well it was the North Shore), a few washed up politicians,” Grant wrote in a chapter for The Australian's serialised murder mystery Oh Matilda: Who Bloody Killed Her?
“Even a couple of liberals (small l of course) and a former managing director of the ABC for good measure.
“Everyone there voted yes for same-sex marriage - the year before last, they'd all tearily applauded their first gay married couple guests - they hated the Catholic Church and had cried when Kevin Rudd said sorry.”
FitzSimons responded in a fiery rebuttal for the Sydney Morning Herald on Sunday, calling Grant's comments “rather odd”.
“Stan has been a semi-regular attendee [of the couple's parties], only to write a mocking piece about it in The Australian a fortnight ago,” he wrote.
Image: Instagram @LisaWilkinson
FitzSimons responded to a comment where Grant mentioned that the hosts “adored Indigenous culture”.
“There were dot paintings on the wall, a photo with their arms around Cathy Freeman at Sydney Olympic Stadium, and a framed copy of Paul Keating's Redfern Statement signed by the last great Australian prime minister himself.”
FitzSimons hit back though and fiercely denied owning any Indigenous artwork.
“For the record, and contrary to what Stan wrote, I don't have a framed Redfern speech on my wall, nor a photo of me hugging Cathy Freeman, nor Indigenous paintings,” he wrote.
“We don't even have the party on Australia Day any more, having moved it to an Independence Day gathering the day before, for obvious reasons.”
FitzSimons also said his friendships have “never been confined by political allegiances” in response to Stan's “lefty love-in” remark.
He ended his piece by writing that anyone who wondered why they weren’t invited in recent years to the annual party should “fear not” as a “couple of vacancies have just opened up” – a curt reference to Grant no longer being invited.