Outrage over ‘woke’ white privilege training in Victoria as radio star unleashes on air: ‘You’re shamed for being white’

Kyle Sandilands has blasted a controversial Victoria Department of Justice and Community Safety plan to include ‘white privilege training’ in a new, taxpayer-funded cultural awareness course.

The department’s workers will be provided with the training as the state forges ahead with plans to broker an historic treaty with Indigenous people.

The mandatory cultural awareness course includes an optional white privilege module. 

Speaking on the Kyle & Jackie O show on Wednesday morning, Sandilands, 53, criticised the ‘woke’ plan, suggesting it teaches that being white is inherently problematic.

‘It’s part of this taxpayer-funded cultural awareness course, which it really means some bulls**t where workers will be taught if you’re born white, you’re likely to have had a pretty cruisy life,’ the KIIS FM star said on air.

‘Why do we need to be taught that?

‘If you work for the for the Victorian Justice Department, thousands of people, you’re forced to go and be shamed for being white.’

However, his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson backed the move and said the course aims to make people aware of the challenges faced by other cultures.

‘I don’t think it’s being shamed … I thought it was just making them aware of how other cultures don’t have it as easy as what we do, which is the truth,’ the 49-year-old said.

The term white privilege refers to advantages afforded to white people by systemic forms of racial injustice. 

Addressing media at Victoria’s Parliament House on Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan defended the move and noted the white privilege training module was voluntary.

‘It’s a bit rough to call out this one module, one training program, that’s optional for those workers,’ Ms Allan said.

‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with efforts being made to make workplaces safe and respectful for everyone.’

Premier Jacinta Allan (pictured) defended the move and noted the white privilege training module was voluntary

AAP reported the taxpayer-funded training won’t be rolled out across other state agencies or departments.

How agencies ‘brand’ workplace training was a matter for them, Ms Allan said.

Corrections and Youth Justice Minister Enver Erdogan also backed the training module, but conceded a name change may have been prudent.

‘[It] probably could have been rebranded,’ he said.

‘People have different perspectives on life and different backgrounds and I think that’s important to understand in multicultural society.’

Opposition justice spokesman Brad Battin said it was a failure of good governance for Labor to support race-based training.

‘Victorians don’t pay tax to cover Labor’s woke agenda’ he told AAP.

Negotiations on Australia’s first treaty with Aboriginal people were slated to begin between the Victorian government and First Peoples’ Assembly in November.

The opposition withdrew its support for treaty in January following the failed national voice to federal parliament referendum, citing concerns about cultural heritage laws.