[jwplayer player=”1″ mediaid=”166128″]

Today show host Karl Stefanovic has criticised the lack of indigenous people on Australian television, calling for a greater amount of diversity on our screens.

In a new interview with National Indigenous Television (NITV) News, Stefanovic described white people as “fundamentally…bland” and said television could be improved by more Aboriginal faces.

• First Contact: SBS proves television can change lives

“I do believe that there should be more [Indigenous] faces. I think that fundamentally, white people are pretty bland … they’re pretty beige … and the more difference you have in colour, in accent, in race, in humour, in belief, I think the richer you are,” Stefanovic told presenter Natalie Ahmat.

Prior to his NITV interview, Stefanovic had spoken about the representation of indigenous people on a Today show panel discussing SBS show First Contact.

The 40-year-old host was questioned as to why the panel of four did not include an indigenous person.

“There was no thought given to that,” Stefanovic admitted, adding that at the time he thought to himself, “Why are we doing this?”.

Stefanovic went on to say he was sick of white Australians commenting on indigenous issues without any personal experience.

“I don’t want to hear from people in the city like myself who are in nice suits and in nice houses and drive nice cars and earn a great wage, talking about what it must have been like for Aboriginal Australians,” Stefanovic said.

“I don’t want to hear them talking about or offering their opinions about how to fix a situation that they have no idea about.”