News October 12, 2021

QMusic has officially revoked Honorary Award given to Denis Handlin

Denis Handlin inducting Michael Chugg as an ARIA Icon

QMusic has officially revoked the Honorary Award presented to Denis Handlin at last year’s Queensland Music Awards.

Australia’s music industry has spent today digesting the findings of the Four Corners report which debuted last night. The major investigation into Sony Music Australia’s toxic workplace culture was a harrowing watch, based on interviews with more than 100 current and former Sony Music employees.

Following the ongoing reports of systemic bullying, discrimination, and misconduct under Handlin’s leadership, QMusic CEO Kris Stewart has now said the organisation couldn’t let this acknowledgement and celebration of Handlin’s career stand.

“Last night’s Four Corners investigative report laid bare the undeniable fact that the culture under Denis Handlin’s leadership at Sony came at significant human cost,” Stewart said. “Toxic workplaces, be they in the office, boardroom, on stage or behind, have no future in Australian music.

We cannot, and should not accept nor celebrate this kind of culture. The future of music must be one that is safe, supportive, and equitable for all.”

This should only be the start of things for Denis Handlin. Only a few hours earlier, we wrote about how calls were intensifying for him to be stripped of his many medals.

Former artist manager and Nightlife Music co-owner Leanne de Souza led the charge, calling on organisations to strip Handlin of his “lifetime achievement” honours.

Over his career, Handlin has been recognised several times at the highest levels, including the ARIA Icon award, the Ted Albert Award, and the QMusic Honorary Award, and he has twice been honoured by the Queen, as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2005 and the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2017.

At the inaugural The Industry Observer Awards in 2018, Handlin was named Executive of the Year.

For more on this topic, follow The Industry Observer.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.