Nine reporter’s ‘unsend’ spree after non-public images seen by 180 journos… Plus, sacked 3AW star Tony Tardio speaks on Jacqui Felgate rift rumours – and two thriller ladies in John Laws’ will: INSIDE MAIL

Tardio’s truth bombs 

There’s nothing like a disgruntled ex-employee dropping truth bombs.

Former 3AW Melbourne newsreader Tony Tardio has been made redundant and the outspoken commentator has come out swinging.

This was one of Tardio’s early salvos on X against Sydney-based management who, he believes, are destroying the Melbourne radio station:

‘A bit more brutal honesty. [The] top two managers from Sydney who’ve presided over destruction of $200million in capital collect $1.5million between them while the entire network ekes out a profit of $4million. Hence cuts and [Melbourne] news coming out of Sydney. Melbourne listeners are being short‑changed.’

The two executives he is raging about are Tom Malone and Greg Byrnes.

But heat up the popcorn because Tardio isn’t just hitting out at Sydney managers. A close reading of his X posts and videos has led some to believe he has also turned on a popular host…

In one clip, Tardio alluded to certain 3AW figures caring less about the content and more about ‘whether the lighting in the studio is any good so you can look good on Instagram’.

Who could you possibly be talking about, Tony?

To our mind, there’s only one 3AW figure you could reasonably call an Instagram star: Drive presenter Jacqui Felgate, a newsbreaker with an impressive 470,000 followers.

‘On air you fawned over Jacqui and know you are knifing her Insta presence,’ one angry X user thundered back, sensing a veiled attack.

But when contacted for comment this week, Tardio insisted to Inside Mail he was not going after Felgate at all.

‘It was not about Jacqui, but what radio has become,’ he said. ‘I don’t like the fact it is visual.’

Fair enough. Many radio veterans feel the same way.

But in 2026, video is an established part of every station, with the material pumped out on social media in an attempt to attract more viewers and listeners.

Inside Mail can also reveal Tardio is heading back to the Fair Work Commission to fight his redundancy with Nine Radio, which in January agreed to sell its stations to the Laundy hotelier family, pending ACCC approval.

A previous hearing could not proceed because Nine had not officially terminated his services. Now he’s officially out, it can go ahead.

While Tardio still has a long way to go to match Felgate’s social media fandom, his respectable 28,500 followers on X continue to grow as he keeps delivering his unfiltered views online.

And he has no plans to stop, telling us: ‘I’ve been treated disrespectfully by the organisation I’ve worked for [for] 43 years.

‘I probably wouldn’t have said anything except for how they treated me.’

It sounds like there will be a lot more truth bombs to come. Watch this space.

Where there’s a will 

Buried in the last will and testament of radio giant John Laws are the unfamiliar names of two mystery women the late broadcaster chose to lend a helping hand from the grave.

Having distributed almost the entirety of his multimillion-dollar estate to his nine children and stepchildren, Laws made separate bequests to four individuals.

One of those was the talkback titan’s longtime personal assistant Jodee Borgo, who devoted 30 years of her life to Laws until his death aged 90 in November.

Laws had lent Borgo $600,000 to buy a three-bedroom Double Bay unit in 2002 and his will stipulated that whatever debt was left owed to him would not have to be repaid. He also left $150,000 to his sister Jennifer Harris.

What has not been reported until now is that Laws bequeathed $25,000 and $20,000 to a pair of one-time female employees.

Inside Mail is not going to identify the women out of respect for their privacy, but a little digging has revealed they worked for Laws in roles which would not have been highly paid.

The one who will receive $25,000 is understood to have been a cleaner, and the other held roles including looking after Laws’ admin.

‘Over the years, they’ve worked for John and John was aware of their circumstances and wanted to help them out in some way,’ a source close to Laws told Inside Mail.

Laws was famously generous to the men and women who helped make his radio program, bringing them back gifts from his regular European holidays. Luxury brand watches, wallets, pens – every staff member got something.

While the names of the unheralded former employees who will benefit from the Laws estate might mean nothing to most of his closest associates, no one doubted Borgo would feature in the will.

‘I remember asking her years ago was John looking after her and she told me he was,’ one former colleague told Inside Mail.

Borgo had long been Laws’ ‘queen handmaiden’, acting as his chief organiser, gatekeeper, protector and carer. She was equally devoted to Laws’ beloved wife Caroline – ‘The Princess’ – until her death aged 82 in February 2020.

Writing off his loan to the mother-of-one, Laws wrote in his will: ‘I declare that this gift to her is in recognition of her ongoing care, assistance and friendship to my late wife and myself.’

Borgo is one of three executors of the Laws estate along with his solicitor James Harrowell and accountant William Shorrock. She is currently clearing out her old boss’s belongings from his apartment on Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf as it is readied for sale.

What is left of the Laws car collection will also be sold, and all capital raised from shares, investments and superannuation funnelled into the John Laws Trust to be shared equally among his children and stepchildren.

Laws has two sons from his first marriage to Sonia Zlotkowski, Richard Brett Laws and Luke Laws. His three children from his second marriage to Yvonne Helstrom-Roux are Joshua Laws, Samuel Laws and Sarah Clementine Parfett.

Caroline’s daughters are Gabrielle Joan Hagon, twins Georgina Carless and Nicola Jane Caroline Hagon, and Susan Rosalie Margaret Hagon.

As well as receiving equal shares in the John Laws Trust, each child and stepchild was bequeathed a one-off $500,000 payment.

Laws made provision for the distribution of what he called ‘a very substantial collection of furniture, paintings, sculpture, carpets, porcelain, watches, jewellery, library and valuable works of art’ in his will.

Those assets, which Laws called ‘the Collection’, included 10 works by artists including Rupert Bunny, John Peter Russell, John Glover and Brett Whiteley he left to the Art Gallery of NSW.

Laws stated in his will it was his wish that those nine paintings and one ink drawing be displayed together at the AGNSW as the John and Caroline Laws Collection.

Asked if the gallery would be able to display the collection as Laws hoped, a spokesman told Inside Mail: ‘We’re not in a position to comment on this bequest at this stage.’

Apart from the ten works Laws left to the AGNSW, any item in ‘the Collection’ valued at more than $50,000 was to be spread among other galleries at Laws’ trustee’s discretion.

Works worth less than $10,000 were to be distributed by Laws’ trustees to his children and stepchildren.

What Laws called ‘various items of my motor cars, part of the Collection and other personal possessions’ were left as gifts in a separate list which was not part of the will.

Hardly a zinger

Labor insiders are telling themselves a hilarious joke at the moment, which is usually the first sign it probably isn’t all that funny. The gag, in circulation among the self-appointed wits of the governing class, is that Angus Taylor must be into astrology too, because if he takes the G out of his first name, he becomes Anus Taylor. 

Yes, really. This is what passes for cutting insider banter in Canberra. We think it says rather more about Labor than it does about the Opposition Leader.

Governments with serious reform agendas generally don’t spend much time workshopping schoolyard anatomy jokes about their political opponents. Governments running a little low on inspiration, however, will laugh like drains at this sort of thing and convince themselves it’s devastatingly clever.

The same tribe once dined out on Sussan Ley‘s extra S. Now they’re recycling toilet humour and calling it political culture. Clever? Hardly. Revealing? Very much so. In Canberra, maturity remains the one portfolio nobody seems keen to hold.

Shameless behaviour

Independent podcast outfit Shameless Media has been doing damage control this week after its fashion spin‑off Style‑ish ignited a social‑media pile‑on.

The trouble began when UK influencer Tamsin Amy, who has roughly 700,000 followers across various platforms, posted a video urging people to develop ‘taste’ through curiosity, ‘friction’, lived experience and the real world, rather than Pinterest boards and micro‑trends.

Fairly standard fashion‑philosophy fodder, right?

But when Style‑ish hosts Maddison Sullivan‑Thorpe, Anika Joshi‑Smith and Joanna Fleming played the clip on their March 4 episode, their reaction veered sharply off‑brand. 

Listeners are used to the trio’s thoughtful, ‘measured’ takes on fashion. Instead, what they got was – to quote more than a few commenters – ‘weirdly aggressive’.

Joanna dismissed Tamsin’s TikTok as ‘f***ing pretentious’ and ‘the biggest first‑world problem I’ve ever heard in my life’ before telling the Brit to ‘go touch some grass’.

Anika piled on with: ‘Take your shoes off, sweetie, and go stand in nature.’ Maddison then escalated things further, raging that as a busy, single 31‑year‑old running a business, she already had ‘more than enough “friction”‘ in her life.

‘So you know what? You back the f**k off,’ she ranted. Crikey!

Listeners were stunned. The reaction was swift and overwhelmingly negative, with comments labelling the segment ‘mean girl energy’ and ‘bizarrely personal’.

Even Tamsin herself posted a calm but pointed TikTok saying the tone was ‘weird as hell’.

As the backlash grew, some long‑term Shameless Media fans expressed concern that the podcast network, once known for its meticulously balanced, Millennial-friendly media commentary, had drifted into something far snarkier.

By mid‑week, Style‑ish had deleted the TikTok cut‑down of the segment. The Instagram version, however, remained up – and the comments are a running case study in brand damage.

In response, Shameless Media rolled out a special, unmonetised episode featuring co‑founders Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews sitting alongside the Style‑ish hosts to apologise and explain where things went wrong.

Maddison said she ‘came across more aggressive than I would probably like’ and admitted ‘we didn’t get the tone right’. Joanna, the most forceful in the original clip, said she had let insecurities take over, leading her to make comments that were ‘flippant and unnecessarily aggressive’.

Anika agreed the trio’s intentions ‘didn’t land’.

Michelle Andrews framed the incident as a failure of internal oversight: ‘When it’s three of you in a room, the tone can very quickly get away… that’s where it’s Zara and my responsibility to be that bird’s‑eye perspective.’

But the mea culpa didn’t land as intended. Many listeners criticised the language as ‘corporate buzzwords’ and ‘light on accountability’. Several took issue with the suggestion that the problem was merely one of ‘tone’, rather than content or conduct.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the Daily Mail, Zara and Michelle said:

‘As co-founders of the business, we felt it was imperative (and very much our responsibility, given the buck stops with us) to make personal contact with Tamsin hours before our podcast episode went live.

‘We thanked her for laying out her thoughts, and acknowledged that having three women unpack one woman’s TikTok on a podcast episode can be heavy‑handed.

‘Once the episode was live, where the hosts personally apologised to Tamsin in the studio together, we sent Tamsin the link privately.

‘We also felt it was important to appear on Sunday’s episode ourselves; we are the owners of this company, and ultimately, all content under the Shameless Media umbrella needs to reflect our values.

‘We thank Tamsin for her honesty and candour; this has certainly been a lesson for the Style-ish brand on tone and balance. This experience is an opportunity for Shameless Media to make a better, more thoughtful show.’

Tamsin, for her part, has refused to wade further into the fray, saying the apology ‘isn’t for me… it’s for their listeners to decide how they feel about it’.

ARN’s big gamble

This may well be the understatement of the year, but there’s a lot happening on the Kyle and Jackie O front.

Now, Inside Mail can reveal a key part of Jackie ‘O’ Henderson‘s now-terminated contract that will give lawyers and industry observers plenty to chew on.

Let’s rewind.

On Tuesday, Kyle Sandilands dropped a bombshell statement essentially demanding that the Australian Radio Network (ARN) put him back on the air.

It followed reports suggesting K&J had KIIS’ed and made up – which we can confirm is the case – only adding more intrigue to this already twisty saga.

Hopeful listeners might assume that means both will return to the airwaves soon.

It’s unlikely to happen, though. Why?

ARN wants out of its $200million contract with Sandilands and Henderson. Plain and simple.

In its announcement to the ASX last week – it seems like a lifetime ago now – the company stated that ‘ARN has terminated the services agreement with Henderson Media Pty Ltd, under which Ms Henderson presents The Kyle and Jackie O Show’.

That was in response to Henderson, or a proxy, telling management that she ‘cannot continue to work with Mr Kyle Sandilands’.

That led many in media to assume Henderson was contracted specifically to the breakfast show. If that were the case, ARN would have grounds to terminate her deal on the basis that she is unable to fulfil the role due to her refusal, or inability, to work alongside Sandilands at breakfast.

But here’s the twist.

Henderson, say our sources, was contracted to the station, not the breakfast show. That means she was not, strictly speaking, breaking her contract if she were willing to broadcast elsewhere during the day.

What has been unclear in this sorry saga is the reason ARN terminated her contract. Saying she could no longer work with Sandilands after a blow‑up – and honestly, who hasn’t said something heated after a workplace row? – hardly passes the pub test as a legitimate reason for dismissal.

However, a judge will ultimately decide that in court.

Likewise with Sandilands. Nothing that happened on the February 20 broadcast seemed to constitute ‘serious misconduct’, as ARN claimed.

While it certainly made for uneasy listening – and Sandilands now admits he should not have had the conversation on air – that segment was normal fodder for that show.

In fact, they’d had an almost carbon-copy argument before. 

Many in the industry agree ARN is rolling the dice and by taking on two of radio’s biggest stars, hoping they can get away with a small payout – well, small relative to their $200M deal – and make a clean break.

Sandilands, for his part, is having none of it. He wants back on the air and, if not, he wants the reported $88million still left on his 10-year deal.

This ain’t done yet.

A premature start?

In NSW state politics, Kellie Sloane helped finish off Mark Speakman on the theory that he simply wasn’t cutting through as NSW opposition leader.

That’s become a little awkward now that the first serious poll since the switch suggests the Liberals haven’t found a fresh gear since Sloane took over so much as rolled gently backwards.

Instead of a honeymoon, Sloane has been forced to take a cold shower since her appointment. Chris Minns is streets ahead as preferred premier, bettering his already big lead over Speakman. One Nation is eating into the conservative vote like never before, and the Coalition looks less like a government in waiting than a sinking ship.

Which raises the impolite question: might Sloane have been better off ignoring the flatterers, staying patient and spending a little longer learning the job before taking the top one within her parliamentary party? She’s still only a first-term MP, after all.

That said, Sloane hasn’t been hopeless by any stretch. Far from it.

On performance alone, there is an argument that she has done reasonably well. The problem, however, is that voters do not care, or perhaps they don’t agree with us. 

In politics, showing promise doesn’t amount to much, especially if the Coalition goes massively backwards at the state election one year from now.

Last bushie standing 

David Littleproud’s decision to quit the Nationals’ leadership, citing a lack of energy, was refreshingly honest. Leading such a dysfunctional party would be tiring, albeit made worse by just how hopeless Littleproud had become. 

But what followed wasn’t quite the sprawling bushland remake of Succession it first threatened to be. Within 24 hours, the contenders had fallen away and Matt Canavan was installed as leader, with Bridget McKenzie and Kevin Hogan ultimately falling short, and former leader Michael McCormack going nowhere. 

That is the Nationals way: a frenzy of speculation, a burst of ego, then a quick stitch-up dressed up as orderly democracy.

All that was missing was Barnaby Joyce, having already announced he’s defecting to One Nation, rejoining the Nationals to save the party from itself (if not himself).

The Nationals, naturally, prefer to think of themselves as the stable, practical country cousins of conservative politics. But the moment a vacancy appears, they still resemble a family business arguing over the tractor shed. 

And with such a small parliamentary team, it says plenty that so many were instantly spoken of as leadership material. In the city version of Succession, you get helicopters and penthouse tantrums. In the Nationals version, you get Akubras, bruised egos and Matt Canavan emerging as the last bushie standing.

Anika Wells’ low key comeback

Sports Minister Anika Wells was back rubbing shoulders with the athletic elite on Tuesday night, making a noticeably low‑key appearance at Parliament House for an event honouring the Winter Paralympians currently competing in Milano Cortina.

The room was overflowing with sporting heavyweights.

Front and centre was Parliament’s own former Winter Olympian Zali Steggall, the alpine skiing champion who won slalom bronze at the 1998 Nagano Games and a World Championship gold in 1999, accomplishments that still make her Australia’s first individual and first female Winter Olympic medallist.

Also spotted: Hunter MP and five‑time Olympian Dan Repacholi, impossible to miss as he towered above the crowd, and Dickson MP Ali France, who unseated Peter Dutton in 2025 and appeared completely at ease as she worked the room.

Wells, however, kept things decidedly understated.

After last year’s expenses scandal derailed what she had hoped would be a triumphant ‘summer of sport,’ the minister seemed intent on maintaining a careful profile.

Despite a generous spread of drinks and canapés circulating the event, she stuck to a single glass of sparkling before switching to water for the rest of the evening.

The night’s standout moment came during a live cross to athletes competing overseas, including Ben Tudehope, who had just claimed silver in para snowboarding.

Unsend! Unsend! 

It was a classic case of WhatsApp‑gone‑wrong for Nine reporter Kate Creedon, who managed to send a string of wholesome family snaps, not to the friend they were meant for, but straight into NSW Premier Chris Minns’ media WhatsApp group – a chat packed with more than 180 journalists.

Realising the mistake, Creedon had no choice but to unsend every single image, leaving the group chat looking like a crime scene of greyed‑out ‘this message was deleted’ notices.

The whole episode serves as a timely reminder to us all: always triple‑check the chat before hitting send.

When Inside Mail reached out to Creedon about the incident, she said: ‘How embarrassing!

‘I was sharing some family photographs with my mother-in-law and accidentally uploaded them to the wrong group. I deleted them straight away, but apparently not soon enough. No political scandal here.’

We’re glad to hear it, Kate.  

Keto Clive

Clive Palmer has once again announced a return to politics, declaring he will contest the Queensland seat of Fadden at the 2028 election.

The move contradicts his earlier claims that he was finished with politics, insisting he was ‘too old’.

Pressed on that past comment, Palmer said he now feels fitter than ever, crediting a keto diet and a new exercise regime.

‘I’ve lost a lot of weight, can’t you see that?’ he told reporters.

‘I’ve been doing keto, and I’ve been running. Honestly, I feel completely reinvigorated now that I’m not eating so much sugar or so many carbohydrates.’

With the Albanese Government introducing strict campaign spending caps, Inside Mail will be watching closely to see how Palmer,  famous for spending millions only to secure no lower house seats, navigates the new rules.

Palmer previously served one term as the Member for Fairfax, elected in 2013 under the notorious Palmer United Party banner. 

He was swiftly unseated in 2016 by former Liberal deputy Ted O’Brien.