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Tracy Grimshaw: “It was definitely a poor choice of words”

Tracy Grimshaw rises above "upper cut" comments by travel industry boss, but considers it bad behaviour.

“I think he could have chosen better words,” Tracy Grimshaw said today.

Responding to comments by Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Jayson Westbury she told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, “I’ve been around for a long, long time. It’s my 39th year. So I’m fairly hard to shock. But my first reaction yesterday was ‘His poor members.’ If that’s their representation in a very difficult, challenging time -and I recognise that travel agents are doing it tough right now- then they’re behind the eight ball. It was definitely a poor choice of words.

“It’s not the sort of language that flies these days. And ….as I said, I’ve been around a long time. I was a young reporter in the 80s and 90s which was frontier-land television. I’ve probably heard worse stuff than that in my life.”

During an online seminar last Friday Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Jayson Westbury objected to ACA coverage of industry stories.

Telling his members not to watch the show, he said, “I won’t ever be watching it again. I think that Tracy Grimshaw needs to be given a firm uppercut or a slap across the face, and I mean that virtually, of course, I wouldn’t want to invoke any violence on anyone.”

Grimshaw continued, “I’m not the type to be in a foetal position in the corner when things like that get said. But at the same time, it doesn’t fly these days. You can’t get away with that stuff. It’s bad behaviour. It’s bad language. You can’t talk like that about women. As soon as blokes like Jayson Westbury realise that the better.

“It’s also classically bad management of a terrible problem. Travel agents need decent representation right now. A lot of them are getting it wrong, and they’re small businesses and they’re suffering through this pandemic as so many small businesses are. They need cool, rational heads advising them. They don’t need someone who is so at a loss in this situation that he tries to pump himself up using language like that.”

In a statement today, Westbury said, “My comments relating to Ms Grimshaw involved a very poor choice of words. I apologise for that choice and accept the language used was completely inappropriate.”

10 Responses

  1. A Current Affair was compelling viewing during the first four weeks of the Coronavirus outbreak, relevant information and interviews with those who mattered. Tonight was the first time I felt ACA fell back to tabloid sensationalism… fad diets and celebrity goss will be next

    1. If its too good to be true, sadly it is. After a couple of weeks of relevant information with coronavirus, its gone back to trash. And what about the staples like alleged dole bludgers and disputes over a fence? It is this trash that is the reason why I deleted Nine off my TV.

      1. If you have deleted 9 off your TV, how do you know that after several weeks of coronavirus stuff they have gone back to what you say? I think you maybe telling porkies.

  2. Years ago it was Naomi creating all the headlines, these days it’s Tracy. Keep forgetting they only went head-to-head for 1 year (the former famously stepping down even though it was her best ever ratings survey).

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