Always Was Tonight

There is a particular cruelty to scheduling Always Was Tonight on Australia Day. Not because it mocks the holiday—though it certainly does, with Gamilaroi host Tony Armstrong delivering lines like describing January 26 as "the only day of the year when white people argue about which date to be racist" from behind a desk shaped unmistakably like a boomerang. No, the cruelty lies in the mathematics.

On an average night in Australia—say, Sunday 26 January 2026—35 Indigenous children under the age of thirteen are incarcerated nationwide. They are 21 times more likely to be imprisoned than their non-Indigenous peers, a statistic that, as Armstrong notes with devastating flatness, "makes the lottery look like a sure bet". In Armstrong's homeland of Victoria, the age of criminal responsibility remains ten years old; in Queensland and the Northern Territory, governments have actively resisted raising it, with the NT controversially lowering provisions in late 2024. Ten years old. Fourth grade. Still believing in Santa, perhaps, but old enough to be deemed criminally responsible in a nation that incarcerates its First Nations children at rates that dwarf virtually every other wealthy democracy.

Director Todd Decker—whose three-decade career in Australian television has spanned everything from Cheez TV to live event direction—understands that such statistics resist straightforward comedy. His approach in this half-hour special is to weaponize the familiar grammar of satirical news programming (the Mad As Hell DNA is unmistakable) while ensuring the punchlines land with calculated discomfort.

The format is deceptively traditional: desk segments, pre-recorded sketches, guest correspondents including Brooke Blurton delivering "Past, Present and Emerging News," and a running ticker ('Tony Armstrong so overexposed he’s technically white'). Armstrong, still developing his comedy timing after transitioning from AFL commentary, relies heavily on autocue but possesses an invaluable asset: the moral authority of someone who has experienced the systems being dissected. When he introduces himself as "the first black face fronting a comedy show on the ABC since Chris Lilley," the joke isn't merely self-deprecating—it indicts the network's decades of exclusion.

Decker's direction shines in the sketch work. A segment featuring the "Rainbow Serpent" (Megan Wilding) discussing cost-of-living pressures while wrestling with her own sibilant pronunciation manages to mock both Indigenous stereotyping and bureaucratic jargon. "Ambassador for White Australia" Clancy Whitley (Bjorn Stewart) delivers a devastating inversion of the diversity token: "Talking about them without them is just about the whitest thing I can do."

But it is the final sketch that transforms the special from merely sharp into something essential. Parodying the saccharine Qantas "I Still Call Australia Home" advertisements featuring children's choirs, Decker stages a choral performance that slowly reveals its participants are Indigenous children in detention. The camera lingers on faces. There is no laughter. When the title card appears—simply stating the number 35—the silence is absolute.

This is satire not as comfort, but as confrontation. The sketch makes literal the show's central thesis: that Australia has engineered a machinery of incarceration so efficient that on any given night—including this particular Australia Day—dozens of children, disproportionately Indigenous, are removed from their communities and placed in cells. This is in a country - MY COUNTRY - where you need to be 16 years of age to use Tik Tok!

The show is not without imperfections. It's full of them! The running news ticker frequently distracts from dialogue, and Armstrong's hosting rhythm occasionally stumbles when improvising with guests. Some jokes, like the Aunty Donna-performed Welcome to Country that devolves into surrealist chaos, may alienate viewers seeking clarity over anarchy. Yet these are minor complaints against the larger achievement. Always Was Tonight arrives at a moment when Australia maintains one of the developed world's lowest ages of criminal responsibility—ten years old—while simultaneously incarcerating Indigenous children at rates 21 times higher than non-Indigenous youth. The ACT has recently raised the age to 14, but most jurisdictions lag behind, with Queensland and the NT actively entrenching punitive measures.

Decker and his team of writers—including Yaraman Thorne, Megan Wilding, Aaron Collins, Jay Wymarra, and Dave Woodhead—recognize that comedy's power lies not in providing answers, but in refusing to let audiences look away. The show's title itself operates as both reclamation and warning: this land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal. The question it leaves hanging is whether Australia will continue criminalising Aboriginal children for existing within it.

Always Was Tonight is essential viewing not because it solves the crisis of Indigenous youth incarceration, but because it dares to count the cost while the nation celebrates. On January 26, while barbecues sizzled and flags flew, 35 Indigenous children under thirteen slept in detention cells. Decker makes sure we remember that number. Whether we do anything about it is beyond television's jurisdiction—but for 30 minutes, at least, the "Aboriginal Broadcasting Corporation" refused to let us forget.