A pair of ABC radio stars whose trip to work at the Paris Olympics cost taxpayers a fortune did not commentate on any sports while they were there, it has been claimed – ‘ABC is totally out of touch with the real Australia’ | HO
A pair of ABC radio stars whose trip to work at the Paris Olympics cost taxpayers a fortune did not commentate on any sports while they were there, it has been claimed.
Adelaide breakfast radio hosts Jules Schiller and Sonya Feldhoff were sent to the French capital to cover the Games, with a Senate hearing told the estimated cost of the trip was $135,000.
That drew a stinging response from South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who said, ‘It is staggering that the ABC thinks that spending $135,000 to send two breakfast radio hosts and two staff to Paris for the Olympic games represents value for money for the Australian taxpayer.
‘All at a time when Australians face a cost-of-living crisis, multiple interest rate rises and some of the highest prices we’ve seen in a generation.
‘Just further proof that the ABC is totally out of touch with the real Australia.’
Schiller and Feldhoff’s time at the Olympics was documented on ABC Adelaide’s Instagram page, and on the presenters’ personal accounts on the platform.
Prior to their trip, the broadcaster said the duo would ‘provide additional reporting on the ground and present the local breakfast show every day’.
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However, they did not provide any commentary for sporting events during the Games, according to News Corp.
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ABC Adelaide radio hosts Jules Schiller (left) and Sonya Feldhoff (right) took a $135,000 taxpayer-funded trip to the Paris Olympics – but spent their time talking to a Moulin Rouge dancer (centre) instead of commentating on sport, it has been claimed
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The hosts even compared Paris’s famous Arc de Triomphe (pictured) to one of Adelaide’s roundabouts as they treated their listeners to their ‘French adventure’
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Schiller (left) and Feldhoff (second from left) also interviewed a Paris-based Aussie Rules team
Instead, Instagram posts reveal the hosts spent time out on the streets of the French capital, teaching Olympics fans how to say ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi’, pretending to drink water from the city’s polluted River Seine, and conducting vox pop interviews with tourists at the Games.
They even compared the famous Arc de Triomphe to Adelaide’s Britannia roundabout, kicked an AFL football with members of a French team, met a dancer from the Moulin Rouge and said one Paris street was like their home town’s O-Bahn busway system.
The ABC called the coverage the duo’s ‘French adventure’ and said ‘our brekkie duo immersed themselves in all the action at street level to make us feel like we were part of the action’.
‘It is difficult to reconcile spending like this with repetitious claims that the ABC is underfunded,’ Antic said.
‘Australians are growing tired of being told they have to tighten their belts when our public broadcaster isn’t prepared to do the same.’
The expensive trip comes after new ABC chairman Kim Williams lashed out at the broadcaster’s priorities earlier this month.
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The pair’s French trip left South Australian Senator Alex Antic (pictured) furious over the use of taxpayer funds at a time when Aussies are being hit by a cost-of-living crisis
Williams slammed the order of stories on the ABC’s website during an address to Radio National staff in late July.
Leaked audio of the meeting revealed he wants to have a more active role in the organisation’s news department than his predecessor, Ita Buttrose, who departed the national broadcaster in March.
‘We need to have a better coherent logic in relation to story prioritisation. And I think that’s not surprising, and in fact, is much more responsive to the way in which people expect new services to be delivered,’ Williams said.
‘I think I make no apology for the fact I think news should be prioritised appropriately. Sorry if that’s unsatisfying.’
There were also calls to defund the broadcaster in May, when ABC star reporter Laura Tingle claimed Australia is a ‘racist country’ in a comment made at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
