Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ignored warnings from his own party and declared he’ll be heading to Mardi Gras as a spectator.
Mr Turnbull will become the first sitting Prime minister to attend the annual gay and lesbian rights parade. He’s attended the event many times in the past as it is held in his Wentworth electorate.
Earlier this year anonymous MPs in the government has described the idea of the PM attending Mardi Gras as “dangerous”.
Unlike Greens leader Richard di Natalie and Labor’s Bill Shorten who will be marching in the parade, the Prime Minister will be a spectator watching from the sidelines.
What kind of reception the PM will get an the event will be an unknown quantity, given the coalitions dedication to a plebiscite on marriage equality and the attacks by conservative MPs on the Safe Schools Coalition, the PM might get a mixed reaction at Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras CEO Michele Bauer said Mr Shorten’s participation meant a great deal.
“It means a great deal,” Ms Bauer told SKY News on Saturday. “The fact that our issues are being taken seriously, the fact that we are being accepted fully into the community, that our voices are being listed to.”
Mardi Gras is being broadcast live by SBS on their webpage and by Melbourne’s JOYFM. A television broadcast of the highlights will be on SBS on Sunday night.
