Indigenous AFL star turned Logie winner Tony Armstrong claims Aussies have 'racism fatigue'

Popular TV star Tony Armstrong believes many Australians are experiencing 'racism fatigue' as he opens up about his upcoming documentary series.

Armstrong, who departed ABC News Breakfast last year, is on a global quest to find solutions to racism in sport with his three-part documentary series, End Game.

The 35-year-old former AFL player is searching for practical, lasting solutions to the problem - but thinks a lot of Aussies are tired of the issue.

'I guess people have got racism fatigue, which is cooked to say,' he told the Inherited podcast.

'But if I just say, "Hey guys, what the hell, racism sucks" people will say, "Oh, here's Tony again beating the drum with racism".

'As cynical as that is, that's where we are at. We saw how The Voice [referendum] went, my general temp check about the way people are talking on social media, it's getting worse.'

Armstrong says he wants to discover how to drive meaningful change, not just get people to agree that racism is a problem. 

'We went to the UK - we spoke with the English Premier League, we spoke with players, we spoke with the police,' he said.

'We spoke with not-for-profit organisations about what they're doing to combat racism within the Premier League and they are doing some amazing stuff.

'We went to the US and we spoke with the NBA, we spoke with some organisations in the NFL, we spoke to the LA Angels [baseball team].

'With them, we go, what's working, what are the structural things you're doing - and we've brought back all that knowledge, and we've come back to Australia.'

Armstrong says he is meeting with the heads of Australia's biggest sporting bodies to see what practical ideas could be adopted Down Under.

Elsewhere on the episode, Armstrong spoke about why he left ABC News Breakfast.

'I decided about halfway through last year that was going to be it for breakfast [TV] because it was killing me,' he explained.

'Literally I ended up staying in bed for a month because I just couldn't get up.'

'I was rostered and I just couldn't get out of bed. Rona [his partner] was like "Look, your body is telling you that you need to resign."

'And I was like "but I've finally got a job that is secure" and you know what this business is like, it's pretty fickle and I've never really been someone who thinks "I'll be right, I'm established enough to do what I want."

'So Rona helped me get into the right headspace to leave telly. She got me to the line to look after my own health rather than job security, I suppose.

'I'm really proud that we were able to step away and I did that through her help. Vice versa, she's stepped away a lot from her not-for-profits to chase her dreams in music. I'm proud of us for navigating how it all works.'

Rona is the CEO of Common Ground, a First Nations not-for-profit organisation that works to amplify First Nations voices, and successful DJ who has performed at some of Australia's biggest music festivals.

Tony and Rona went public with their romance in 2023, and are believed to have been together for three years.

'What a lot of people probably wouldn't realise is I had to write all my own scripts and produce all my own footage,' Tony said as he recalled his earliest days as a fill-in host and producer for ABC Sports Breakfast.

'I was a one-man-band.'

'The thing about news is because it's a 24 hour cycle, you can't prepare. You can't do your work early so you get in there and it's done. You're trying to get to bed early to get up at 3am or 4am.

'I hate mornings with a passion. I just do not like waking up. So those two things don't go together.'