Divorcing the ABC

The ABC’s mental cruelty 

Remember the time when marriage was a contract and not a fashion accessory? Way back then, one way to break the marriage contract was a legal device or argument that a lawyer could present to a judge. It was called mental cruelty. To get a divorce without having to go into other messy details like unfaithfulness or violence, you just whipped out the old mental-cruelty ploy, and bingo! It worked a treat. 

Well! I’d like to apply for a divorce from the ABC on the grounds of mental cruelty. 

I’d also like to name the ABC’s Managing Director Mark Scott and the ABC’s Head of Television Kim Dalton — and whoever is Head of Radio and News these days — as co-respondents. It’s their conduct — they are to blame — after all they’re the Heads of the ABC “family” and they are driving me out of my cotton-picking mind. 

For at least the past 18 months ABC 1 television has been running the same old bits of nonsense called “station breaks”, whereby you have to listen to…