The divide between the political class and regular citizens in Australia is highly pronounced: the politicians all went to the same universities and have mansions in the same leafy suburbs – we even built the politicians their own city to live and work in, away from the unwashed masses.
The result of this is that – thanks to both their isolation and the personal wealth that protects them from experiencing the actual outcomes of their policies – they never really have to face the consequences of their actions. Being so removed from society, they are rarely ever taken to task.
On the rare occasion that an ordinary person actually gets to tell them how they feel, it’s usually in a supermarket:
But sometimes, it’s on live television. The unlikely confluence tonight on ‘The Project‘ of prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and exquisitely gay comedian Rhys Nicholson turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for someone to say something to Turnbull’s face about his party’s sluggish and embarrassing progress on marriage equality.
The PM was on the show primarily to be grilled about plans to appoint his most potato-esque minister as the head of a massive Homeland Security-style agency, while Nicholson was on the show to act as a spokesperson for all ginger people in Australia, but the latter still found an opportunity to sneak in a dig at the former.
Answering a question about if any of the nicknames for redheads are genuinely offensive, the perfectly coiffed Nicholson made a delightfully pointed jab:
“I’m all about the nicknames, I think it’s all about ownership, you know, those are our words, we can take them back. The main thing is you don’t want anyone to be treated differently for something they can’t change about themselves, so just deal with it – I don’t know, something like, for example, marriage rights or something.”
After which he was very promptly said goodbye to, but it was very clear that he had made his point. What a bloody legend. You can watch the clip below:
Source and photo: The Project.
