Sarah Hanson-Young apologises to Ray Hadley for confusing him with Alan Jones

Sarah Hanson-Young has apologised to broadcaster Ray Hadley after she confused him with his 2GB colleague Alan Jones.

Sarah Hanson Young has been forced to apologise to Ray Hadley.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been forced to apologise to broadcaster Ray Hadley after she confused him with his 2GB colleague Alan Jones, accusing Hadley of defending “ditch the witch” and “Bob Brown’s bitch” placards attacking then prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011.

Jones appeared in front of the placards to address an anti-carbon tax rally alongside then opposition leader Tony Abbott at the time.

During an interview on 3AW yesterday to promote her new book En Garde, calling out “rampant sexism” in politics, Senator Hanson-Young accused Hadley of reserving his “nastiest comments for women”. In the book she notes that Hadley has at various points called her a “dingbat”, “mad as a meataxe”, “silly as a cut snake”, a “dolt” and a “silly woman”.

This morning, following a request from Hadley’s lawyers, Senator Hanson-Young issued an apology. “On Tuesday, 2 October 2018, I was interviewed by 3AW host Neil Mitchell,” she said in a statement. “During the course of the interview I associated Ray Hadley with gender-based comments and slogans used on placards outside of Parliament in reference to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

“Mr Mitchell indicated on air that he thought I had confused Mr Hadley with another presenter. Mr Mitchell was correct. I regret the error, thank Mr Mitchell for bringing this to my attention and I apologise to Mr Hadley.

“I am pleased that we as a nation are continuing to talk about this important social issue and hope it continues.”

Hadley told his listeners on 2GB that he accepted Senator Hanson-Young’s apology “in the spirit it’s given.”

“I hope it’s sincere. And what I’d like you to do in future, before you get interviews either on 3AW or the ABC, a little tip for you darling, I get here at 4.30 in the morning and do a bit of research — and I guess that’s another way of being a misogynist, calling you darling, so I’ll do that again, darling, I get here at 4:30 in the morning and do a bit of research,’’ he said.

“Set the alarm a bit earlier, get up a bit earlier then you might know a bit about .... border security, the Greens’ policy on superannuation, and what I did and didn’t say.

“You might try it one time, Sarah, it’s call research, and most people in public life do a stack of it, including politicians. Obviously in your case, research is not perhaps what it should be.”

During yesterday’s interview Mitchell said Hadley had used similarly abusive terms to describe him as well. “Ray Hadley on air has called me a ‘loser’, ‘idiot’, ‘weak’, ‘incompetent’, ‘unprofessional’, ‘untalented’ and told me to stick my head somewhere,” Mitchell said. “He called Alexander Downer a ‘dope’, Peter Garrett was ‘old baldy’, he went after Scott Morrison. I mean he is offensive to everybody, not just women.”

Senator Hanson-Young responded: “I think he reserves his nastiest comments for women.

“Listening to enough of the interviews and the tones of the interviews gives me that sense and that understanding,” she said. “I think part of this whole debate actually is that of course, some of these people, they can’t argue the toss appropriately so they resort to these kind of personal attacks.”

Mitchell said that was true, but argued Hadley made personal attacks on men as well as women.

“I think what they do is there are the attacks they throw at men, and that somehow says, ‘oh, they’re not being sexist’, but the nastiest attacks are reserved for women, over and over again,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

Asked to name an example, Senator Hanson-Young said: “Look the things that Ray Hadley said about Julia Gillard he’s never said about a male prime minister.”

“What did he say?” Mitchell asked.

“Things about her gender, things about …” Senator Hanson-Young said.

Mitchell interjected: “What did he say about Julia Gillard specifically, and I’m serious, I don’t recall.”

“Repeating those things about her being Bob Brown’s bitch and defending those signs out the front of the parliament,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“Ditch the witch?” Mitchell asked.

“Ditch the witch,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“And I don’t think anyone should defend that stuff.

“Look, if he wants to behave like that, that’s up to him, but I’m going to call it out.”

Mitchell then asked: “But you’re not confusing him with Alan Jones?”

“Oh Alan Jones has also done some, you know, said some pretty appalling things about people over the time. I think Julia Gillard really copped it,” Senator Hanson-Young replied.

On air this morning Hadley took the opportunity to highlight other occasions when Senator Hanson-Young had got her facts wrong, including in 2014, when she mistook Seven Network drama Sea Patrol for a reality TV show on border security during a Senate Estimates hearing.

In a 2016 radio interview she also said earnings within superannuation funds should be taxed at a person’s marginal income tax rate (they are currently taxed at a maximum of 15 per cent) when the Greens’ policy was to change the tax rate on contributions for people on incomes of more than $100,000 a year, but not at their marginal income tax rate.

Hadley told his listeners: “I’ve had a little bit of a battle off air with Sarah Hanson-Young, because she went on with my colleague Neil Mitchell on 3AW yesterday and made a series of accusations against me, which were basically completely and utterly untrue.

“It’s a bit like when she thought (actor) Lisa (McCune) was a real person on border security when she was on Sea Patrol. Remember that one?

“Then of course there was the infamous time when she appeared on ABC radio in Adelaide and had precious little idea of what superannuation policies the Greens were espousing, so she has a history of getting it wrong, the senator, the Greens senator.

“I requested through our lawyers a clarification and an apology from Sarah Hanson-Young.”

Mitchell also apologised on Hadley’s show. “I’ve already spoken on air this morning in a recorded interview with Neil Mitchell, getting a similar apology and withdrawal from what he broadcast on the program yesterday,” Hadley said.

“He didn’t do it deliberately. He did it inadvertently because he believed what the silly woman said, and apparently she takes objections to me calling her a silly woman.

“She says that I’m misogynist and sexist and I attack women more than I attack men.

“You’d better phone Malcolm Turnbull in New York, Sarah, and see whether I attacked him or Julia Gillard more.

“I think you’ll find … Malcolm Turnbull wins by the length of the strait in terms of attacking prime ministers.”