The Courier-Mail has long had a fixation on private schools. Especially “elite” private schools, which it seems to write about disproportionately and with unusual and undeserved reverence.
The paper often finds a way to shoe-horn in a mention of the private school attended by the subject of the story whether that fact is relevant or not. Mostly it’s a “good” mention, when the story is about glittering social functions, charity fundraisers, big real-estate deals or rugger.
When it’s a crime story, the subtext is that this person has let down a great institution and/or it is somehow remarkable that somebody with such a good education turned out to be a bad’un. A recent example: “Former private school real estate big shot hit with 31 drug, gun charges.”
This has always struck me as strange given that only 30% of schools in Queensland are pruvate and most of those could hardly be said to be “elite” (as many former local Catholic school pupils can attest).
It’s also been my observation, as a onetime denizen of Bowen Hills, that graduates of elite private schools have historically been overrepresented in the newspaper’s workforce, especially at management level.
When I was there, the fact that I had attended a state high school seemed to confuse and bemuse some of my colleagues who had come through the ranks of Nudgee, Terrace, Churchie, Grammar and their ilk. Or maybe I just imagined that.
Anyway, this obsession came to a peak recently with an “exclusive” story about a change in the uniform at a “prestigious Brisbane Anglican girls’ school”, St Aidan’s.
More than 420 people have, apparently, signed a petition against this outrage that will “cost around $1000* per student and destroy the brand of the prestigious Brisbane school”.
[At the time of writing, 19,246 people have signed a petition to State Parliament to abolish parking fees at public hospitals for healthcare staff. Some 6,372 petitioners want to phase out greyhound racing, and 2,893 people want to “to ensure adequate provision and coordination of palliative care services across Queensland.” I must have missed the Courier’s breathless reporting on those issues or any of the 70-plus other current petitions that have attracted more than 420 signatures.]
The author of the St Aidan’s story also posted a video on social media, which caught the attention of the We Used to be Journos podcast, hosted by Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf.
The clincher for them (and me) is this comment by the writer, a C-M associate editor: “Many mothers and fathers have contacted me personally and said that they think the new revised uniform looks like it belongs in a state school.”
As Fran and Lattouf ask their audience, “How many people do you think have the … personal contact details of the associate editor of a newspaper?”
The podcasters have an amusing, but important, discussion about newsroom culture and how people from a similar background get excited about a story that really doesn’t have broad relevance to the readership:
I think newsrooms are invested in these kinds of stories because it’s like their friends get mad about something, and then their friends pick up the phone and they’re like, “Did you—did you know about this?” And then they think it’s the most important story in the world.
I would go further and say that the attitude displayed in the video is unnecessarily, even hurtfully, dismissive of the millions of people who went to state schools. I can almost hear the words, “Imagine our gels having to look like common oiks!”
Now, to be fair, the Courier-Mail video on the school scandal did get quite a lot of views and robust reaction, which could be used as a justification for posting it in the first place. Engagement is king, after all.
But when you look at the nature of many of the comments — my favourite says: “Is this satire?” — and think about what the podcasters have to say, you’d have to wonder whether a story like this ultimately harms the credibility and reputation of Brisbane’s people’s paper.
Update: Just before hitting send on this post, I was extremely pleased to seed this opinion piece from Frances Whiting in defence of her state school education and the apparent attitudes of some of the private school parents.
*This, apparently, is on top of the annual fee of about $32,000 for students in Years 7-12. What an outrageous imposition on struggling families.
British actor, comedian and writer Chris Langham, who has died at the age of 77, was one of the first international “celebrities” I met.
It was 1980 and I was still a student at the University of Queensland. He was in Brisbane for a one-man comedy show at the Twelfth Night Theatre.
He came out to campus for Expo Uni and hung around Triple Zed and the Journalism department. That’s when I took the photo, above, with a cheap point-and-snap camera.
His credits then included a small role as one of the giggling guards in The Life of Brian (his then wife, Sue Jones-Davies, was the female lead), as a writer on The Muppet Show (he later guest starred in an episode that has since been removed from circulation for reasons that will soon become apparent) and as a star of the first season of Not the Nine O’Clock News.
He went on to star in People Like Us, Kiss Me Kate and the first season of The Thick of It. Another series, Help, was informed by Langham’s own addiction to alcohol and cocaine.
In 2007, he was convicted on charges of downloading child sex abuse images and videos.
In 2008, he was interviewed by celebrity psychologist, and his former Not the Nine O’Clock News colleague, Pamela Stephenson Connolly, for her series Shrink Rap.
He died of pancreatic cancer on June 23, but news of his death was only made public in early September.
(The above is extended version of something I posted on Facebook on September 4.)
I never met Richard O’Sullivan, the star of Man About the House, Robin’s Nest and Dick Turpin, who as died at the age of 82, but he was constantly on the television as I grew up and I admired him immensely. May he rest in peace.
©2026 Brett Debritz. If I’ve inadvertently used copyrighted material, failed to give credit where it’s due, written or said something you disagree with, or otherwise upset or unexpectedly delighted you, please leave a comment, email me or connect with me at @debritz on X and Mastodon, @brettdebritz on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and BlueSky, and @radiobert on YouTube. Links provided as a courtesy; I take no responsibility for their contents or give any warranty of their veracity. Mister Brisbane is free to read. If you really like it, you can become a paid subscriber or buy me a coffee. Connect on Facebook here (also for free) and I may get a micropayment. Images: AI/ Brett Debritz
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz used to work for the Sunday Mail and once wrote a column about radio for The Courier-Mail.