Qantas called out after Indigenous Olympian Nova Peris' husband spotted a racist slur scrawled on the in-flight magazine

Australians have been appalled by a racist slur scrawled on a Qantas magazine and left in a plane seat pocket.

Indigenous Olympian and former Federal senator Nova Peris has shared a photo of the magazine taken by her husband Scott Appleton when he flew from Alice Springs to Darwin on Tuesday.

The magazine was in the seat pocket in front of the elderly lady next to Mr Appleton and appeared to be a spiteful reaction to the Welcome to Country broadcast by the airline before each landing. 

The message said that 'no one respects' Indigenous people, labelling them as 'lazy' using a racist slur.

'Stop the stupid respect to Elders bulls***,' the second line read.

'Here's to hoping Qantas tell their cleaning contractors to remove Qantas books from planes with racist messages written on them,' Ms Peris wrote.

Those commenting also expressed their dismay. 

'Dreadful, ignorant racist statement, the magazine should have definitely been seen & removed by staff,' one person wrote.

'Appalling. So sorry,' another said.

'Cleaning staff need to be more vigilant but also people need to show respect for others,' commented another. 

Mr Appleton is reported to have alerted a flight attendant about the defaced magazine, which was then removed. 

'They handled the situation very well, and were extremely sensitive in the way it was handled,' he told the National Indigenous Times.

Qantas expressed its shock and regret over the defaced magazine.

'We are appalled that someone would make these racist remarks,' a Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo News. 

'We are committed to supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and are proud that our crew acknowledge country for every flight landing in Australia.'