Former Liberal MP Cory Bernardi has taken up a new role as a Sky News presenter with his show Bernardi airing on the news broadcaster each Friday night. The latest episode saw the former Liberal, who defected to form his own Australian Conservatives party, share his outrage that people who were asexual and aromantic were being recognised and celebrated by a Melbourne council.

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If that’s not bad enough, someone has degendered his favourite toy, Mr Potato Head.

The hour long show is touted as an opportunity for Bernardi to deliver “deep insight and his broad political experience” on important issues. The former politician, who once suggested that allowing marriage equality would lead to legalised bestiality, took aim at the queer community once again accusing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and aromantic people of “terrorising the country.”

Bernardi said it was madness that Melbourne’s Yarra City Council had flown the aromantic flag above their council building during Aromatic Awareness Week, saying that local rate payers were stumped when they saw the green, white, grey and black striped flag appeared.

Mayor Gabrielle de Vietri has outlined the council’s decision to fly the flag and show support for people saying the council were big supporters of diversity.

‘Yarra flies the Aromantic flag in recognition of Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, acknowledging those whose experience of romance is disconnected from normative societal expectations or who experience no romantic attraction. Another way to celebrate the wonderful diversity in Yarra and affirm that all are welcome!” de Vietri told the media earlier this week.

Bernardi took aim at the people the day of awareness celebrates asking, “Wow! No romantic attraction, are these people who are not attracted to other people, or who find that people aren’t attracted to them.” before going on to suggest aromantic people are just people who have “gone on a bad date”.

“This is extraordinary they’ve come up with a new spectrum to parade around in front of us, and I’ll add ‘A’ now to the LGBTIQ alphabet mafia” Bernardi said.

The Aromantic flag wasn’t the only thing that had wound up the conservative outrage merchant, he’s also upset about Mr Potato Head being made gender neutral.

Toy manufacturer Hasbro recently announced that they’d be updating their Mr Potato Head, and Mrs Potato Head, toys to be gender neutral.

“When I had a potato head,” Bernardi shared, “You had a potato, and then could add a moustache, or a hat, or a bowtie, or ears, or a dress, it didn’t have a gender, it was just a potato!”

“Why are they trying to dehumanize potatoes!” Bernardi exclaimed.

Bernardi wasn’t the only Sky News presenter bringing deep analysis to the issues of the day by focusing on flags and children’s toys.  Earlier in the evening colleague Rita Panahi also shared her objections to Aromantic awareness.

Panahi said the Yarra City Council’s decision to support Aromantic Awareness Week showed the council were out of touch and “mining new depths of crazy”.

“The fact that those who are aromantic or asexual are considered part of some repressed spectrum deserving of advocacy and recognition is absurd.” Panahi said.

“There is absoloutely no reason to believe that a person who is aromantic or asexual is in anyway being discriminated against because of their orientation, who the hell would even know how much sexual attraction or romantic feeling a person feels for another person.”

Panahi said the aromantic flag was “awful” and looked like it was designed by “the a-visuals”, before asking why people who identify as fray were not being recognised by the local government authority. The presenter shared some Tik-Tok clips she’d found that explained the phenomenon of people who are only attracted to people they don’t know.

Outlining her concern that the LGBTIQ lobby was becoming too powerful and adding more sexual identities to it’s acronym, Panahi said the existence of flags that identifies aromantic or fray people was proof that LGBTIQ lobbyists were pushing a “radical far left agenda” rather than advocating for genuine equality.

Graeme Watson

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