Add Category
Former Bachelorette and radio host Abbie Chatfield says she is “baffled” that Kyle Sandilands has not been reprimanded for his offensive on-air comments about people living with a disability.
Chatfield said she had no idea how the KIIS FM shock jock had not been cancelled, labelling his continuous remarks of words like “spaz” as “disappointing” and “disgusting.”
“I don’t know why he’s not at least being reprimanded,” Chatfield told The Daily Telegraph.
“I don’t know why advertisers still align.”
“It’s as baffling to me as it is to everyone else.”
Sandilands has been under fire for several on-air outbursts in the past few months, which commentators have described as “disrespectful, “hurtful,” “transphobic” and “homophobic”.
The KIIS FM host went on a tirade about Monkeypox in August, where he described the virus as the “the big gay disease floating around”.
The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations said Sandilands’ remarks would inflame the stigma around the virus and deter people from being tested and vaccinated .
“Comments such as this are not just hurtful, they are also deeply unhelpful,” a spokesman for the organisation said.
In another on-air rant in May, the radio shock jock took aim at female transgender athletes, saying they shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women-only sport.
Chatfield said there was a double standard in what Sandilands’ was able to get away with versus other media personalities.
“I’m sure if someone like Fitzy or Wippa, the loveliest guys in the world, said something like that, they’d get in a lot of s***,” she said.
The former Bachelorette believed Sandilands’ behaviour had been allowed to continue because a pattern had been set.
“People go, ‘well that’s just Kyle’. What he wants is people to call him out, so people are listening to hear what wild thing he’ll say next.
“It’s continually disappointing and continually … disgusting, the things that he says on air.
“I’m sure people don’t agree with him wholeheartedly. I don’t think they’re vehemently ‘for’ being ableist. They’re more apathetic, which is also an issue.”
Two of KIIS FM’s major advertisers, Bunnings and Vodafone parent company TPG Telecom, were reportedly reviewing their spend on the station following Sandilands comments.
It is understood the corporate brands were taking steps to distance themselves from the shock jock’s offensive on-air remarks.