{"id":567080,"date":"2026-03-27T04:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567080\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:44:08","slug":"kyle-sandilands-termination-case-should-not-be-a-royal-commission-into-his-career-shock-jocks-lawyer-tells-court-australian-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567080\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Sandilands\u2019 termination case should not be a \u2018royal commission\u2019 into his career, shock jock\u2019s lawyer tells court | Australian media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Sandilands\u2019 court case was not an occasion for a \u201croyal commission\u201d into his career and he just wants to get back to work quickly, the shock jock\u2019s lawyers have told the federal court.<\/p>\n

Sandilands, who was earning $10m a year to front the Kyle and Jackie O Show, has taken Kiis FM to court to argue the licensee, Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was wrong to terminate him for serious breach of contract<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Justice Angus Stewart heard Sandilands wants to fast-track his case but it would be delayed because CBC wanted to lodge a cross-claim that Sandilands has been overpaid and should pay some of the $100m contract back.<\/p>\n

Sandilands\u2019 claim is for the remaining $85m he would have earned<\/a> if the contract had been allowed to run its course until 2034.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur case is that the termination was invalid, and he\u2019s entitled to continue the show, and is entitled to the payments under the broadcasting services agreement and under the intellectual property agreement,\u201d Sandilands\u2019 barrister, Scott Robertson SC, said at the first case management hearing on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client\u2019s principal objective is to get back on air before his audience as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his slot has come to an end, or it will, in about 45 minutes, but he\u2019s happy to turn up on Monday morning, continue to do his show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up to get Guardian Australia\u2019s weekly media diary as a free newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

Arguing for a quick resolution, Robertson said the case was not an occasion for a \u201croyal commission into Mr Sandilands and his previous radio career\u201d.<\/p>\n

But CBC\u2019s barrister, Tom Blackburn SC, said the prospects of Sandilands being put back on air were \u201cvanishingly small\u201d and he needed time to prepare a proper case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t accept the central premise that Mr Sandilands\u2019 goodwill and notoriety is dramatically wasting away for every day he\u2019s not on air,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

The prospect of Sandilands returning to air with Kiis FM \u201cis effectively nil\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Blackburn said it was \u201ctransparently wrong\u201d that the court could force CBC to put Sandilands back on air just as it would be impossible for CBC to \u201cforce him to present his breakfast show\u201d.<\/p>\n

Robertson sought a formal order for extradition in an attempt to fast-track the case in the courts because Sandilands\u2019 argument is \u201cnarrow\u201d and concerns only \u201c20 minutes of conduct on one day\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Blackburn said the question of whether Sandilands\u2019 behaviour amounted to serious misconduct was a \u201cfact rich\u201d question for a jury who would need to consider more than the 20-minute incident with Henderson.<\/p>\n

It would include previous incidents and a wider review of his behaviour, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, in substance, a claim for a debt,\u201d Blackburn said. \u201cHe wants his $10m a year for the next eight or nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside court Sandilands repeated his desire to go back to work to support his family and to pay his mortgages; and said he was sorry about the \u201cblow-up\u201d with Henderson that led to the cancellation of their show.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says things from time to time, especially with people that you\u2019re close with,\u201d Sandilands said. \u201cShe understands. We\u2019ve had blow-ups before \u2026 This has all turned into quite a circus. I didn\u2019t do anything different than I\u2019ve been doing for 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandilands insisted that the conversation in which he mocked his on-air partner of 25 years for her interest in astrology, was \u201ca little bit tamer than most days\u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice Stewart ordered Sandilands to lodge a statement of claim by 7 April and CBC a defence and a cross-claim by 24 April. He set down a provisional date of 22 to 26 June for a hearing.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement between CBC and Sandilands\u2019 company, Quasar, each year the broadcaster was entitled to $7.4m in cash, a consultancy fee of $200,000, a flight allowance of $120,000 and contra air time valued at $500,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Sandilands\u2019 court case was not an occasion for a \u201croyal commission\u201d into his career and he just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-567080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}