Barnaby Joyce: marriage survey campaigners should ‘get out of my face’
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed both sides of the marriage equality debate with postal survey ballots to be sent out this week.
“Just get out of my face,” he told the ABC’s RN Breakfast.
“I can’t stand these people who stand at the corner and start yelling at you about what your views are on a very personal issue, just get out of my face, leave me alone I will make the decision up myself.”
He said Australians have “made up their mind, they’ve got it worked out, they’re going to send their ballot back.”
“Sometimes I believe on both sides the advocacy is doing more to harm them than to help.”
Joyce is against marriage equality, but told the program that if the survey returned a Yes result he would not vote against it.
His comments come as the Coalition and Labor attempt to come to an agreement on regulating advertising throughout the postal survey’s run.
The Turnbull Government wants the legislation to prevent vilification and mandate that any advertising must be authorised as is required during election campaigns.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has suggested that Labor wants the legislation to have provisions hate speech, which may be difficult to enforce.
“Labor has asked the government to include a provision that would ban vilification — hate speech — and it looks at this stage like the government is prepared to agree to that.”
Poor Barnaby – it’s not easy being a Catholic boy sometimes and at this time it’s not proving any easier given his current position of possibly being subjected to a bi-election anytime soon.
As a conservative who happens to be in his electorate and gay, I’ve recently pointed out to him that there are more than a few of us and after the way the Coalition has treated gay people he might not be able to rely on our “usual support” at the next ballot box.
In the past the Nats did not allow their MP’s to have a free vote on this issue – but recently they must have been shocked to find out more than a goodly percentage of their own party’s supporters also support ME. Six months ago he brazenly stated no one had ever chased him up the road to talk about marriage equality – these days he’s a lot less gung ho. Perhaps he’s been receiving a lot of mail or calls of late in addition to my own?
Hilarious. His policy is that everyone has to have their say. But when anyone says it, he tells them to shut up.
Tell you what Barnaby, do you know where they’ve shut the hell up about marriage equality, made it a total non-issue? That’s right, New Zealand. Why not take up your citizenship option in a place where you don’t have to hear about marriage equality.