British comedian John Oliver has slammed Australia’s same-sex marriage postal vote, saying the whole process has been “odd” and the “weirdest waste of Australian money.”
The Last Week Tonight host started his segment by saying, “If any of that made you feel sad about our state of democracy, spare a thought for Australia.”
Oliver went on to say the decision to spend $122 million of taxpayer’s money on a non-binding poll was “an odd thing to do because polls already exist showing around two-thirds of Australians support it.”
He then showed footage of an interview Liberal MP Kevin Andrews did on Sky News, where he compared same-sex relationships to the relationship he has with his cycling friends.
“Yeah I mean we do f**k, we finish cycling and we slowly peel our clothes off,” Oliver said in an Australian accent. “But that’s not marriage. That’s f**king your cycling mates.”
He then brought up Sophie York, another of the No lobbyists, who said gay marriage should be given a different name, proposing “garriage”.
“Garriage, that is a stupid word. Except in the very rare case of a wedding between two men named Gary, in which case obviously they should be getting ‘garried,’” the host joked.
And, of course, he brought up the debate over whether Macklemore should be able to play his song ‘Same Love’ at the NRL grand final – which eventually happened but not without backlash and petitions, lead by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
“Okay so that is putting me in a bit of a tough position because I do support gay marriage but I refuse to ever say, ‘Let Macklemore perform.’”
