(Ireland mentioned at 7:45)
AN AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL advisor went on an anti-Irish rant during a TV debate about marriage equality.
Australia is looking at putting a bill to parliament to legislate for same-sex marriage with politicians in favour of it pushing their parties to allow a free vote on the issue.
The opposition Labor Party put forward a bill yesterday replacing the words “man and woman” with the term “two people” to define who can be legally married.
In a TV debate on the issue yesterday Grahame Morris, a Conservative commentator and former advisor to the ruling Liberal party, said that both the country and parliament ‘aren’t ready’ to vote on same-sex marriage.
He said that he felt that Australia is being bumped into a vote after Ireland’s referendum, describing the Irish as a people who “can’t grow potatoes”:
The trigger was a vote in Ireland. Now I love the Irish, the parliament is full of Irishmen but these are people who can’t grow potatoes, they’ve got a mutant lawn weed as their national symbol and they can’t verbalise the difference between tree and the number three. But, and then all of a sudden, Australia has to follow suit.
“I have a feeling this could end up like that stupid referendum on a republic where the electorate wasn’t ready,” he added.
“The parliament wasn’t ready and you’ve got to put it off for another ten years. This is going to be divisive and I’m just not even sure the parliament is ready.”
Opinion polls show that most Australians support same-sex marriage. LGBT advocates say Australia is now the only English-speaking developed country to ban same-sex marriage after the Irish vote.
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