While not a professional pilot, merely an amateur, permit me to make a small comment.
The tenor of the general comments in this thread only reinforce general perceptions of professional pilots as aloof, condescending, disconnected, idiots with no understanding of human behaviour, let alone empathy with the travelling public.
It's no big deal to YOU to divert to Brisbane, but to the first time traveller it IS.
That's because they do not have the same perspective of what is going on that you do, how could they?
Don't you understand? Perceptions are reality.
It probably was a slow news day.
To a first time flyer, with no knowledge of aviation, diverting is a big deal.
Assuming they were merely told the cause was "fuel", they are entitled to assume that there is not enough fuel to get to Sydney, just as if they were driving the family car.
What we do not know is what the passengers were told about the situation when they were told of the diversion. The timing, content and delivery of that announcement should have stopped this story in its tracks.
To put it another way; it's not what YOU think, it's what THEY perceive, and railing at other, less informed, peoples perceptions of what is happening is pointless and generally marks the complainer as a fool.
Comfy Chair summed up what apparently happened rather well I thought.