‘It’s a shame’: Radio insiders’ sad update on Kate Ritchie… Plus, Grace Tame’s Strava reveals more than just her running route and how a Sky News shocker went to air: INSIDE MAIL

Young (Liberal) at heart 

How old is too old to no longer be considered a Young Liberal?

Well, it seems like age is just a number for 42-year-old Felicity Wilson.

The Liberal member for Sydney’s well-heeled North Shore in the NSW Parliament has not let her recent promotion to the opposition frontbench get in the way of having a good time.

Wilson made an appearance at the NSW Young Liberal ball last weekend alongside her state party leader Mark Speakman and Liberal Senator Dave Sharma.

The event, held at the ritzy Dockside on Darling Harbour, featured a three-course meal, a ‘4.5-hour beverage package’, a DJ and dance floor and the ‘honour of hearing the 2025 YL Roast’. All that for just $180!

One might assume Wilson made her excuses and left somewhere between the three-course meal ending and the DJ beginning – but you’d be wrong.

No, the mother-of-two was more than happy to clear a section of the dance floor and volunteer herself as a human bench press for the impressively muscle-bound Vice President of the Young Liberals, Christian Martinazzo.

Centre of attention: Felicity Wilson (middle), Liberal member for Sydney’s North Shore in the NSW Parliament, is pictured with the next generation of young Liberals rising through the ranks

Vice President of the Young Liberals, Christian Martinazzo, attempts to ‘bench press’ Wilson

The gym enthusiast regularly flaunts the results of his strength training 

How do we know this? Because Martinazzo was happy to share a video of his supposedly superhuman supine press attempt.

We say ‘attempt’, because the now-deleted video helpfully cut out at just the moment Martinazzo might have been achieving some distance between Wilson’s backside and the carpeted floor.

Perhaps it was edited to save his blushes. 

If so, we recommend he spend even more time than he already does in the gym.

We asked Wilson if she could shed any light on whether it was a proper rep or not – and she suggested it was.

‘Our YLs (Young Liberals) are always lifting, never leaning, and as an MP I am grateful for their strong support,’ she told Inside Mail.

Take two! 

Here at Inside Mail, we try to avoid the sort of frothing-at-the-mouth ABC bashing that seems to be par for the course at certain other outlets.

But one thing we will say is, if you’re going to bash Aunty, make sure you get it right.

That lesson was learned the hard way by the staff at Sky News Australia’s The Media Show after a clanger and a half was aired by mistake.

A clanger and a half was aired on Sky News Australia’s The Media Show, hosted by Jack Houghton, when an outtake was broadcast by mistake

As host Jack Houghton took the public broadcaster to task for failing to challenge ‘absurd’ statements by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, he stumbled, somewhat ironically, over the word ‘gibberish’.

Jack then asked the camera guy, ‘Sorry, can I redo this?’ – which must have come as a surprise to the viewers at home who assumed they were watching live TV.

It turns out The Media Show is pre-recorded piece by piece throughout the week before being stitched together on Friday by a junior employee.

The wrong take was included in the final cut, and the staff member was apparently mortified by the gaffe after it was picked up on X by Stephen Mayne, the founder of left-wing news website Crikey.

Mayne made the point that ‘you’d never see a failed take like this on Media Watch’ – which is true, but only because the ABC show has a full staff dedicated to making 15 minutes of television per week, whereas Sky pulls theirs together on a shoestring.

TV news vs truth-seeking bogans 

There’s nothing a true-blue Aussie bogan loves more than sticking it to the ‘MSM’.

And the followers of the ‘Bogans’ Instagram account claimed quite a victory this week when they obtained vision of a Nine reporter filming a roadside segment that was clearly… wait for it… ‘fake news’!

An onlooker spied an off-camera light rig flashing ambulance colours while a Nine reporter filmed a roadside segment. For followers of the ‘Bogans’ Instagram account, it was proof the ‘MSM’ is lies! 

A video shot by an onlooker showed a reporter filming a story about a paraglider who crashed at Stanwell Park, Wollongong, and escaped with just a shoulder injury.

To inject a little drama into the dispatch, the journalist positioned themselves in front of an off-camera light rig flashing ambulance colours, creating the illusion that paramedics were just out of shot.

Misleading? We’ll let you decide.

But emergency vehicles had been there with their lights on earlier in the day, and reporters did catch vision of the pilot and the ambos who came to his assistance.

But that didn’t stop the bogans from declaring the footage a smoking gun – proof, they reckoned, that all news is fake and you are being lied to.

Some viewers got so overexcited they tracked down the reporter and sent threats.

When the person who filmed the scene urged everyone to calm down, a proud patriot piped up: ‘It’s about time these “journalists” faced consequences for lying to us.’

Charming. 

Radio notes 

Radio’s ‘killing season’ is still five months away, but at Inside Mail we already have a pretty solid idea of what’s going to happen at Nova in November.

The lucrative contracts for long-time Sydney breakfast hosts Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald and Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli end this year.

Will they be renewed?

Fitzy and Wippa’s contracts are up this year. Our sources say the middle-of-the-ratings-pack duo have had their day and will be moving on. All signs point to Kate Ritchie leaving the station

‘It’s a shame to see her go. She’s so good,’ said a sympathetic radio insider. (Ritchie is pictured at the beach in March)

We spoke to a handful of insiders, all of whom reckon Tim Blackwell (centre) and Ricki-Lee Coulter (left) are bound for Sydney breakfast at Nova

Our mail suggests late drive team Ben, Liam and Belle will either move to Adelaide breakfast or national drive in 2026, having relocated to the City of Churches

Industry whispers suggest Tim Blackwell and Ricki-Lee Coulter – two thirds of the Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel national drive show with comedian Joel Creasey – are bound for the Harbour City’s coveted 6am slot.

As for Fitzy and Wippa’s missing-in-action third host, Kate Ritchie, all signs point to her making a quiet exit.

‘It’s a shame to see her go. She’s so good,’ said one sympathetic radio insider.

In a sign the writing is on the wall, Kate’s Instagram bio doesn’t mention Nova; instead she is simply ‘actor, radio and broadcaster’.

As for late drive, we expect changes are afoot now that the hosts of Ben, Liam and Belle – that’s Ben Harvey, Liam Stapleton and Belle Jackson – have moved back to Adelaide after more than two years in Melbourne.

‘Word is they will either move to Adelaide breakfast or national drive in 2026,’ we are told. Watch this space. 

Just do it, Nike!

Former Australian of the Year and part-time provocateur Grace Tame could lose her brand deal with Nike for her heated commentary about the Israel-Gaza war.

A Nike spokesperson said this week the global sports brand had been ‘in touch with Grace’s team to understand the matter further’.

Tame, who has built her public image pushing boundaries, accused Israel in a May 23 Instagram post of committing genocide in Gaza, called Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, and described his government as ‘fascist’.

Grace Tame is using her Strava runs to take swipes at critics of her hardline stance on the Israel-Hamas war

Last week, Margin Call editor Yoni Bashan also noted she signal-boosted a reference to Jewish supremacy (specifically the ‘legitimisation of Jewish supremacist ethnonationalism’), a phrase loaded enough to give even the staunchest Palestinian sympathiser pause.

We were amused by Bashan’s humorous summary of her rhetoric as being typical of someone who ‘swallowed too many Noam Chomsky books’ in their youth.

Indeed, we weren’t the only one to notice this little sting in the tail.

Tame herself, in what looks to be her only public response to reports Nike is reviewing her contract, alluded to this line on the fitness app Strava over the weekend.

Yes, it appears the accomplished long-distance runner has been quoting her haters when naming her daily runs.

She titled Saturday’s Bellerive Parkrun in her home town of Hobart: ‘swallowed too many Noam Chomsky books’. Quite the zinger!

We note she claimed gold by adding a first-place medal emoji; however, a rundown of the results shows she was beaten by a boy in the 11-14 age bracket, who scored a PB by completing the 5km in 18 minutes 49 seconds.

Better luck next time, Grace.

We recently reported on 30-year-old Tame’s friendship with 65-year-old photographer Stuart Spence (right), with whom she was pictured at the beach in early April

She split from her ex-fiancé Max Heerey, a fellow fitness fanatic, a while ago. He used to work for the Grace Tame Foundation but is now a mortgage broker

Some things never change

It’s nice to see SBS is still living up to its ’90s nickname ‘Sex Before Soccer’.

Inside Mail’s urbane in-laws were in town last week and naturally we switched to the diverse, high-minded offerings of SBS On Demand for some midweek viewing.

Quelle horreur! We discovered the ad-supported streamer was a cesspool of smut.

Not only did the landing page feature a selection called ‘Get a Room’ featuring modern-day bodice-rippers such as My Mistress, Fidelity, The Sex of the Angels, and The Girlfriend Experience…

But, to our shock, several of those spicy flicks, and similar titles, also featured in another prominently displayed category we weren’t expecting.

Most watched.

It’s nice to see SBS is still living up to its ’90s nickname ‘Sex Before Soccer’

Do as I say, not as I do

Do we now have proof positive that hypocrisy really is thy name when it comes to the prime minister?

The Shakespearean phrase seems on point now that Anthony Albanese has accepted WA Greens senator Dorinda Cox defecting to become a Labor senator despite his previous calls for Fatima Payman to give up her seat when she left Labor to become an independent shortly after the 2024 election.

Back then Albo had said, ‘No individual is bigger than the team,’ insisting it would have been inappropriate for her not to step aside and give her senate spot back to Labor under whose banner she’d been elected in the first place.

Albo welcomed defecting WA Greens senator Dorinda Cox this week. He had a rather different view when Fatima Payman quit Labor and he called for her to return the seat to Labor

‘Fatima Payman received around about 1,600 votes, the ALP box above the line received 511,000 votes. It’s very clear that Fatima Payman is in the Senate because people in WA wanted to elect a Labor government.’

What about WA voters who wanted to elect a Greens senator? Now that a WA Green has done the same thing, it’s apparently alright.

The PM even held a media conference with Cox in Perth to ‘welcome’ her to Labor’s senate team.

No wonder people think politicians will say and do whatever suits them, even if it flies in the face of their on-the-record moralising.

‘Democracy doesn’t stop’ – unless Albo says so 

Speaking of hypocrisy, what about Albo’s decision to have fewer than 40 parliamentary sitting days this year when he was so critical of Scott Morrison‘s decision not to let parliament sit more frequently during the pandemic year?

At the height of Covid, Albanese, then Leader of the Opposition, was a critic of Morrison’s move to curtail the number of sitting days, even though it sat more than it will this year.

He argued at the time that democracy doesn’t pause during a crisis and warned of the dangers of executive overreach when parliament is sidelined.

Yet fast forward to 2025, and the Albanese government is presiding over a parliamentary calendar with fewer than 40 sitting days, the smallest number in more than two decades.

The inconsistency is glaring. ‘Democracy doesn’t stop,’ he thundered five years ago. Those words ring hollow now.

The public could be forgiven for thinking that once in power, the imperative for scrutiny becomes inconvenient for Albo. If he truly believed the principles he espoused from opposition, this year’s anaemic sitting calendar is a betrayal of that standard.

Either his earlier criticisms were opportunistic or his government has become the very thing he once condemned.

Bradfield recount proves why rules are rules

With the battle for Goldstein now over and Zoe Daniel‘s ill-timed victory dance on election night safely filed away for when (or if) she decides to make another run for parliament, the teals are focused on celebrating victory elsewhere: in the blue-ribbon Liberal-held seat of Bradfield on Sydney’s leafy north shore.

Nicolette Boele yesterday officially won the recount by 26 votes. She was losing by just eight votes to Liberal Gisele Kapterian on the original count. 

The comparison between the two seats highlights why AEC recounts are mandatory for close results decided by fewer than 100 votes, which happened in Bradfield.

But Daniel demanded a recount in Goldstein, which was always a case of sour grapes given the margin was 260 votes, well above the margin requiring a recount under the rules. 

She got her wish anyway, and unsurprisingly still lost by 175 votes. 

Ouch. Rules are made to be broken… but are often there for a reason. 

Cloud hangs over Higgins’ new PR gig

Congratulations to Brittany Higgins on her new job as head of corporate affairs at the PR agency Third Hemisphere.

While most of us mere mortals might have settled for a LinkedIn post, the former Liberal staffer received a gushing 660-word write-up in the niche news website The Australian Financial Review.

Posing with her three-month-old son Freddie, Higgins spoke about her own ‘brand reputation’ and her totally healthy lack of work-life balance in her previous role working for WA Senator Linda Reynolds in the corridors of power.

Brittany Higgins has joined her husband David Sharaz at the PR agency Third Hemisphere

While most of us mere mortals might have settled for a LinkedIn post, the former Liberal staffer received a gushing 660-word write-up in the niche news site The Australian Financial Review

‘I was the most intense person back in the day – the first one in and the last one out – I had no work-life balance, and it was exactly how I liked it,’ Higgins said.

Let’s hope she doesn’t take the same approach to life at Third Hemisphere where she will be working alongside her husband and briefcase-carrier-in-chief David Sharaz, who is a director at the firm.

We revealed in April the former journo had scored some early runs on the board by strong-arming health Minister Mark Butler into taking an interest in the lack of federal funding for people with stomas.

Higgins will no doubt be keen to replicate his success and hit the ground running, but with four years out of the workforce, it’s a tall order.

And any first-day nerves must also pale in comparison to the anxiety she surely feels over the impending judgment in her defamation trial brought by her former boss Reynolds.

The five-week trial in the WA Supreme Court ended in September, cutting short the couple’s fairy-tale life in their French chateau.

If Reynolds wins, Higgins and Sharaz could be on the hook for $675,000.

Inside Mail hears a judgement is expected this month, making for an extremely nervy first few weeks back in employment for Higgins.

She asked the AFR: ‘How long do I have to be the story for?’

A wee while longer, it seems. But then, all publicity is good publicity, right?

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