ABC tweet outrages ‘boring’ South Australia

An ABC news editor has been labelled ‘the ultimate Ultimo wanker’ after he suggested Sydneysiders ‘may die of boredom’ if they travel to South Australia.

The ABC offices in Ultimo, Sydney. Picture: AAP

A Sydney-based ABC news editor has been labelled a dill, desperately unfunny and “the ultimate Ultimo wanker” after he used South Australia’s decision to open its border with NSW to issue a bogus health warning that people “may die of boredom” if they travelled to SA.

The criticism even came from former senior ABC figures in South Australia, who described NSW digital editor Riley Stuart’s tweeted gag as typical of the public broadcaster’s Sydney and Melbourne-centric view of the nation.

Veteran ABC Adelaide radio host Matthew Abraham, who co-hosted the city’s high-rating breakfast show for more than a decade, said Stuart’s tweet shed light on the attitudes that permeated the ABC’s headquarters at Ultimo in inner-city Sydney.

#BREAKING NSW residents warned not to travel to Adelaide when SA border opens tonight as they “may die of boredom”

— Riley Stuart (@RileyStuart1) September 23, 2020

Abraham revealed that Sydney-based executives used to refer derisively to the “BAPH” cities of Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart when discussing news.

“It reflects the entrenched superior Sydney mindset of the ABC, which I observed inside the tent for years,” Abraham said. “We used to get sneered at and looked down on all the time.”

Abraham made the comments in his new regular spot on Adelaide’s FiveAA breakfast show, where Stuart was labelled an “Ultimo wanker” whose idea of seeing Australia was to walk from one end of Glebe Point Rd in Sydney’s inner-west to another.

Riley Stuart’s tweet has stirred debate about the ABC’s focus on Sydney and Melbourne.

ABC Adelaide journalist Drew Radford made a similar attack on the tweet, saying it proved a “total lack of awareness of ABC being more than just Ultimo”.

Stuart’s full tweet read: “#BREAKING: NSW residents warned not to travel to Adelaide when SA border opens tonight as they “may die of boredom”.

Be it a sign of Adelaide’s capacity for civic pride or tendency towards hypersensitivity, even former South Australian ministers entered the throng, with Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone simply tweeting “GFY” to Stuart, an acronym for a phrase that begins with the word “go” and concludes with “yourself”.

GFY. You poor ignorant grumblebum

— Amanda Vanstone (@amandavanstone) September 24, 2020

Long-serving state minister Patrick Conlon gave Stuart some comic tips.

“It’s a great line to use when you can’t think of anything original, clever or funny. Well done you.”

Adelaide’s fiercely patriotic Advertiser newspaper sent requests to Stuart for comment but he declined to respond and the newspaper may well be publishing a special wraparound edition tomorrow condemning the journalist.

In all seriousness it is likely his tweet will cause him strife internally, as ABC news director Gaven Morris told staff last week he did not think being on Twitter was of much value to them and only exposed them to abuse and embroiled them in controversy.