AM host Ryan Bridge found himself in the middle of an on-air muddle over whether it is OK to call a colleague 'good girl.'
On Thursday's show, Bridge took a moment to pose the question to his fellow presenters if he was out of touch.
"I just wanted to bring something up from earlier in the morning when I was talking to Emma Olsen, who works on our programme," he began.
"She did a great thing - she managed to get us a very good interview with a resident in Maui, where those wildfires are taking place and once she had done that I said 'good girl'."
It was at this point that co-host Laura Tupou gave Bridges a withering laugh.
"And another member of our team said 'oh c'mon Ryan what is this the 1950s - you can't say good girl'. Now I'm happy to be corrected but is there something wrong with that?"
"It's weird," Tupou said.
Undeterred, Bridge continued, explaining why he didn't think it was a bad thing.
"Claire who used to be our executive producer sometimes said to me 'good boy' and I used to feel quite good about myself. So at what age do you stop calling somebody a girl or a boy? Is there a written rule here that I'm not aware of?" Bridge asked the audience.
Seemingly desperate to save her colleague from further embarrassment, Tupou told him: "Yes - as a journalist, you should know this Ryan. When you're writing a story, someone is a woman when they're an adult."
"Yeah okay, so as soon as you're what - 16, 18?" Bridge ventured.
"18," Tupou told him.
It was then things took a turn for the worse after newsreader Michael O'Keeffe revealed what others may have been thinking about Bridge's use of "good girl".
"I witnessed this first-hand and I laughed. I was like, you can't say that, but even so you can't say good woman, good lady," he said.
"No you just say good job," Tupou pointed out.
"You say that to a dog, right - 'oh good boy, good girl'," O'Keefe said.
"I did wonder because I have a dog called Fanny but I will always say 'good girl, good girl' so maybe I was just thinking of the dog when I was talking to Emma," Bridge said.
"That's [made things] worse," Tupou said
Later in the broadcast Bridge raised the topic again, saying he had received an email from Olsen herself which said: "Can we express to the audience, I'm not one of these woke Gen Zers. I actually don't care that you said 'good girl'. You've called me much worse. I'm unphased at anything that comes out of your mouth," he said her email stated.
Bridge ended by cheekily doubling down with: "Good on you Emma, you're a good girl."
Watch the video above.
