- The Adelaide-based hosts made an expensive trip to the Games
- The trip prompted a harsh response from the South Australian senator
A pair of ABC radio stars whose trip to work at the Paris Olympics cost taxpayers a fortune did not commentate on any sport while there, it has been claimed.
Adelaide morning radio show presenters 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.
This prompted a strong response from South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who said: “It is astonishing that the ABC thinks spending $135,000 to send two morning radio presenters and two staff members to Paris for the Olympics represents good value for the Australian taxpayer.
‘All this at a time when Australians are facing a cost of living crisis, multiple interest rate increases and some of the highest prices we have seen in a generation.
“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 the presenters’ personal accounts on the platform.
Ahead of their trip, the broadcaster said the duo would “provide additional on-the-ground reporting and present the local breakfast show every day.”
However, they did not provide any comment on sporting events during the Games, according to News Corporation.
ABC Adelaide radio presenters 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) rather than commentating on sport, it has been claimed.
The presenters even compared Paris’s famous Arc de Triomphe (pictured) to one of Adelaide’s roundabouts as they regaled listeners with their “French adventure”.
Schiller (left) and Feldhoff (second from left) also interviewed a Paris-based Aussie Rules crew.
Instead, Instagram posts reveal the hosts spent time 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, played AFL football with members of a French team, met a dancer from the Moulin Rouge and said a street in Paris was like their hometown’s O-Bahn bus system.
ABC called the coverage the duo’s “French adventure” and said “our breakfast duo immersed themselves in all the street-level action to make us feel like we were part of the action.”
“It’s hard to reconcile spending like this with repeated claims that the ABC is underfunded,” Antic said.
‘Australians are tired of being told they need to tighten their belts when our public broadcaster is not prepared to do the same.’
The costly trip comes after ABC’s new president Kim Williams criticized the broadcaster’s priorities earlier this month.
The couple’s trip to France left South Australian Senator Alex Antic (pictured) furious at the use of taxpayer funds at a time when Australians are hit by a cost of living crisis.
Williams criticised the order of stories on the ABC website during a speech to Radio National staff in late July.
Leaked audio from the meeting revealed she wants to take a more active role in the organisation’s news department than her predecessor, Ita Buttrose, who left the national broadcaster in March.
“We need to have a more consistent logic around prioritizing stories. And I think that’s not surprising and actually much more responsive to how people expect new services to be delivered,” Williams said.
“I don’t think I have to apologize for thinking that news should be given proper priority. I’m sorry if that’s not satisfactory.”
There were also calls to defund the broadcaster in May when ABC star reporter Laura Tingle claimed Australia was a “racist country” in a comment made at the Sydney Writers Festival.