ABC morning radio team faces criticism over what they did – and didn’t do – during their taxpayer-funded trip to the Paris Olympics

Two ABC radio stars who cost a fortune to travel to the Paris Olympics are said to have not reported on any sports during their stay there.

Adelaide morning radio presenters Jules Schiller and Sonya Feldhoff were sent to the French capital to cover the Games. A Senate hearing determined the trip was expected to cost $135,000.

That prompted a sharp response from South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic, who said: “It is astonishing that the ABC thinks spending $135,000 to send two morning radio presenters and two staff to Paris for the Olympics is value for money for the Australian taxpayer.

‘And all this at a time when Australians are grappling with a cost of living crisis, multiple interest rate hikes and some of the highest prices we’ve seen in a generation.

‘More evidence that the ABC is completely out of touch with the real Australia.’

Schiller and Feldhoff’s time at the Olympics was documented on ABC Adelaide’s Instagram page and on the presenters’ personal accounts on the platform.

Before their trip, the broadcaster said the duo would provide “additional on-site reporting and present the local breakfast programme every day”.

However, they said they did not comment on any sporting events during the Games. News Corp.

ABC Adelaide radio presenters Jules Schiller (left) and Sonya Feldhoff (right) took a $135,000 taxpayer-funded trip to the Paris Olympics but spent their time chatting to a Moulin Rouge dancer (centre) instead of commentating on sport, it has been claimed

The presenters even compared Paris’ famous Arc de Triomphe (pictured) to one of Adelaide’s roundabouts as they regaled their listeners with their ‘French adventure’

Schiller (left) and Feldhoff (second from left) also interviewed an Aussie Rules team from Paris

Instead, Instagram posts show the presenters spending time on the streets of the French capital, teaching Olympic fans how to say “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi”, pretending to drink water from the polluted River Seine and conducting vox-pop interviews with tourists during the Games.

They even compared the famous Arc de Triomphe to Adelaide’s Britannia Roundabout, kicked an American football around with members of a French team, met a dancer from the Moulin Rouge and said one street in Paris resembled the O-Bahn bus system in their hometown.

The ABC called the reporting the duo’s “French adventure”, saying: “Our breakfast duo immersed themselves in all the street-level action, making us feel like we were right there in the thick of it.”

“It is difficult to reconcile this kind of spending with the repeated assertion that the ABC is underfunded,” Antic said.

‘Australians are fed up with being told to tighten their belts, while our public broadcaster is unwilling to do the same.’

The expensive trip comes after ABC’s new chairman Kim Williams slammed the broadcaster’s priorities earlier this month.

The couple’s French trip left South Australian Senator Alex Antic (pictured) furious about the use of taxpayers’ money at a time when Australians are facing a cost of living crisis

Williams criticised the ordering of stories on the ABC’s website during a speech to Radio National staff in late July.

Leaked audio of the meeting suggests he wants to take a more active role in the organisation’s news department than his predecessor, Ita Buttrose, who left the national broadcaster in March.

“We need to have a better coherent logic around how stories are prioritized. And I think that’s not surprising, and in fact much more aligned with the way people expect new services to be delivered,” Williams said.

“I don’t think I’m apologizing for the fact that I think news needs to be prioritized in the right way. Sorry if that’s unsatisfactory.”

Calls for the broadcaster’s funding were also raised in May when ABC star reporter Laura Tingle claimed in a comment at the Sydney Writers’ Festival that Australia was a “racist country”.