Stan Grant will have an important role in Australia’s indigenous affairs. Picture: Supplied

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten jointly announced that the indigenous broadcaster has been appointed to the Referendum Council following the departure of Patrick Dodson, who has resigned to become a Senate candidate for Labor.

“Mr Grant’s extensive experience and commitment to constitutional recognition and indigenous affairs will be invaluable in the role as a member of the Referendum Council,” they said in a joint statement.

The Referendum Council was established last December to advise on referendums on recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution.

Grant has become a strong advocate for indigenous relations and was considering running for Parliament following the public response to a speech he gave on racism in the IQ2 Racism debate in October last year.

In that speech he noted that racism was killing the Australian dream.

“The Australian dream is rooted in racism,” a steely-eyed Grant told the audience.

“It is the very foundation of the dream. It is there at the birth of the nation. It is there in terra nullius.”

Stan Grant’s speech on racism in October was well-received across the nation. Picture: Adam Yip / The AustralianSource:News Corp Australia

Mr Grant made reference to lyrics in the national anthem — “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free” — to highlight the shocking reality about indigenous disadvantage.

“My people die young in this country. We (indigenous Australians) die 10 years younger than average Australians,” he said.

“We are far from free. An indigenous child is more likely to be locked up in prison than they are to finish school.”

Grant, who also staunchly defended Sydney Swan Adam Goodes during last year’s ugly booing scandal, said it was important to acknowledge the more difficult aspects of Australia’s past.

“It is also a country with a stain on its soul, and my people still bear the pain of that suffering,” he said.

“If people listen to the stories that I’d been told as a boy growing up, if we’d been able to share these stories instead of this myth of the peaceful settlement of Australia, then we’d be able to understand history.

“Racism is destroying the Australian dream because it sits at the heart of the dream but it should not define us because we are better than that.”

The popular presenter has been a mainstay of Australia TV, with a career spanning across newspapers, radio and, news and currents programs with the Seven Network as well as Sky News and CNN. He has also published two books The Tears of Strangers (2103) and Talking to My Country (2016), the latter a tome Grant says is about “shared history and aour failure to reconcile”.