Tweet storm gets rapper to sing Same Love but harder
THE controversy around American rapper Ben Haggerty, also known as Macklemore, singing Same Love at Sunday’s NRL grand final has heated up with senior MPs weighing in on whether sport should be a politics-free zone.
Attorney-General George Brandis took a swipe at former prime minister Tony Abbott’s comments.
“This particular song is one of four songs, I believe, that Macklemore is singing,” Senator Brandis told ABC.
“It is one of (Macklemore’s) most popular songs and for Mr Abbott and anyone else to say that it should be banned I think is a bizarre thing to say.
“I thought Mr Abbott believed in free speech.”
Justice Minister Michael Keenan said people should be able to watch sport without thinking about the same-sex marriage debate.
“We don’t want to politicise everything in this country all of the time,” he told Sky News.
“It’s a reasonably important question that we’ve put to the Australian people but there’s a hell of a lot more going on in our country and there’s certainly a lot more going on in the government than that.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has backed the singer by quoting lyrics from Same Love on Twitter.
Mr Abbott took to social media to condemn the song that celebrates gay marriage and highlights opposition LGBTI couples face.
“Footy fans shouldn’t be subjected to a politicised grand final. Sport is sport!” Mr Abbott wrote on Twitter.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also criticised the choice of entertainment.
“People have had it up to here with the same-sex marriage issue,” she told
Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
She said she would rather see John Farnham or Daryl Braithwaite perform than an American import.
Macklemore has responded to the criticism, telling a US radio show he was getting a lot of tweets from “angry old white dudes in Australia” and he would “go harder” in response.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will publish a weekly estimate of the
running total of same-sexmarriage postal surveys sent back, starting next Tuesday.
The Australian reported yesterday the ABS said the number of surveys received before 5pm each Tuesday would be published on its Marriage Law Postal Survey website each week, to help promote the poll.
The survey closes on November 7, and results are due to be announced on November 15.
Meanwhile a million home phones will be targeted by robo-calls from Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi, urging a No vote.
The calls, targeting homes in Victoria and South Australia, not surprisingly will warn that a Yes vote for same-sex marriage will open the door on “radical gay sex education and gender ideology programs being taught in schools”.