Disability advocate Hannah Diviney slams Kyle Sandilands after explosive rant

The disability advocate who inspired global superstar Lizzo to change her lyrics has taken aim at radio host Kyle Sandilands over a pejorative-laden rant, as his bosses remain silent.

Prominent disability advocate Hannah Diviney has slammed KIIS FM breakfast host Kyle Sandilands for an extraordinary on-air outburstin which he labelled colleagues “spazzes”.

It comes as station boss, ARN, remains silent on the scandal five days after the segment went to air, in which Sandilands also called bosses and co-workers “flops”, “losers” and ”dumb”.

“The ableist language on display from Kyle Sandilands is deeply disappointing and disturbing as is the failure of KIIS FM to step in and shut his rant down,” Diviney told The Daily Telegraph.

“ARN have demonstrated countless times how unwilling they are to hold him accountable for his actions or deliver consequences, which, to me, signals an unspoken agreement and complicity with his horrendously outdated opinions.”

Diviney has made headlines internationally over recent months for calling out some of the biggest music acts in the world for their use of ableist slurs in song lyrics.

Disability advocate Hannah Diviney. Picture: Richard Dobson

KIIS FM host Kyle Sandilands. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Spaz is an offensive abbreviation of the term, spastic, which is technically by meaning “a condition in which muscles stiffen or tighten, preventing normal fluid movement”.

The word has however long been used as a pejorative used against disabled people.

Pop superstars Beyonce and Lizzo, on separate tracks, removed the word “spaz” from their songs after being called out by Diviney.

Global pop star Lizzo removed the pejorative term ‘spaz’ from her recent hit Grrrls after Ms Diviney brought the issue to the her attention. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

She also brought Eminem to task for using the same word on his recent album, Curtain Call 2, on the first track Godzilla, which is a duet with late rapper Juice WORLD.

“It’s my hope that action will be taken because it is 2022 and I don’t know how after global conversations about ableist language in the music industry, this can be allowed to pass freely,” Diviney said. “But I’m not holding my breath.”

‘THINK BEFORE SPEAKING, KYLE’: HADLEY

Veteran broadcaster Ray Hadley also called on the KIIS FM shock jock to think before speaking.

Ray Hadley was called out for using the term in 2004, and apologised. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Hadley, mornings host at AM station 2GB, was in 2004 called out for using the term “spastic” and subsequently apologised.

“I am not here to defend Kyle Sandilands, he can defend himself, he is big enough and ugly enough to do that,” Hadley told listeners. “I am sure if he spoke to a father like I did 18 years ago about how offended he is by that term, he would refrain from using it. It was offensive 18 years ago and it is offensive now.”

Hadley continued: “I am not a reformed drinker or a reformed anything else, smoker, trying to lecture to people about the way they should behave because I have continually made mistakes through my life in relation to language and a whole lot of other things but that is one thing that I think that the lesson I learned from 2004 was how hurt people were by my use of it without me even thinking about it, having grown up in the period back in the 60s and 70s where it was commonly used.

“I think he (Sandilands) is a pretty good bloke, I think his rant was quite funny actually and there has been no reaction from ARN so maybe to a certain extent they must have agreed with the things he said about copywriters and publicists and a whole range of other things that he said at the time.

“But in relation to the use of that term, I would hope that Kyle would refrain from doing that in the future.”

THE TIRADE

Sandilands, 51, launched into the tirade early Thursday as he was fuming over media coverage of the most recent radio ratings survey results.

He and co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson had come in as the second-ranked breakfast team based on audience percentage.

Kyle and Jackie O. Sandilands has often cut a divisive figure in the Sydney media landscape.

“We have to do everything our(selves) … we have to even rewrite the live reads because the spazzes down there, they can’t even write a live read,” Sandilands told listeners.

“I am sick and tired of working here.

“Everyone is a loser, except for everyone on this show, everyone else outside of this show is a massive loser.

“I am not joking.”

Sandilands also hit out at top breakfast host, Ben Fordham, on 2GB and labelled his listeners as “just dead in a wheelchair, they just sit there like dumb fibreglass-looking fake people”.