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How Kyle and Jackie O were thrown into the centre of a huge political spat: 'Hypocritical'
A proposal to ban a council from advertising on the Kyle and Jackie O show has spectacularly backfired, with Labor accused of hypocrisy for the suggestion.
The firestorm began after Brisbane City Council's Labor team pushed to prohibit council advertising on the Kyle and Jackie O Show was met with backlash.
The motion, introduced by Labor councillor Lucy Collier, called for the council to immediately stop buying advertising during the breakfast program.
Brisbane City Council is the nation's biggest local authority, representing more than 1.2million residents, a population larger than the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory combined.
The council has been under Liberal National Party (LNP) control since 2004.
Collier accused the LNP of misusing ratepayer funds to 'sponsor shock jocks,' saying money should instead be directed to 'roads, footpaths and libraries.'
'Advertising is more than just a placement, it's an endorsement,' Collier argued.
'Residents expect better than their money being used to boost a show that is racist, sexist, mean, divisive and deeply disrespectful.'
But her attack quickly unravelled when LNP councillors pointed out Labor's own history of advertising with ARN, the network that airs the Kyle and Jackie O Show, particularly during election campaigns.
Deputy Mayor Fiona Cunningham branded Collier's move 'hypocritical' and politically motivated.
'This opposition is dominated by men who, week after week, disrespect women in this chamber,' Cunningham said.
'For Cr Collier to come in here lecturing us about Kyle and Jackie O while her own party advertises on the same network is transparently hypocritical.'
Cunningham also highlighted gender dynamics inside the chamber, pointing out that 65 per cent of LNP councillors are women, compared with a male-dominated Labor opposition.
'These [Labor] men have referred to female LNP councillors as dogs and grubs,' she said.
'They accuse female councillors of shouting and sniping. They mock their hobbies and they shout over them. In fact, I'm sure every single woman on this side of the chamber can think of a time when a male Labor councillor has shouted over them.'
She also noted that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has appeared on the Kyle and Jackie O Show 11 times, even attending host Kyle Sandilands' wedding.
'If it's good enough for the Prime Minister to appear on the program, how can Labor argue Brisbane City Council should boycott it? This is not about community standards, it's about politics,' Cunningham said.
She further rejected Collier's central claim the council was 'sponsoring' the show.
'We don't sponsor Kyle and Jackie O,' she said.
'We advertise with one of the largest commercial radio networks in Australia. That's all. Council does not regulate or censor content, that's the job of the federal communications minister.'
Collier refused to answer repeated questions about whether Labor itself had purchased advertising with ARN.
The chamber then descended into heated exchanges, with Collier citing the show's past controversies while LNP councillors accused her of cherry-picking.
In the end, the motion failed, with just five councillors supporting it and 16 voting against.
In her right of reply, Collier insisted the LNP was avoiding accountability.
'The best argument the LNP can make is that if someone else does it, then it's okay for them,' she said, maintaining that advertising during the Kyle and Jackie O program still amounted to an endorsement.
In March, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that the Kyle & Jackie O Show breached decency rules under the Commercial Radio Code of Practice, over two separate segments that discussed graphic sexual acts.
In 2024, the show faced backlash over a segment in which Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson ran a competition where female staff recorded themselves urinating, with the 'boys… trying to guess whose flaps made the sound.'
