Source : Perth Now news
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has come out defending his populist party as “one of the gayest parties in Australia” after footage emerged of a former candidate claiming gay people have a mental illness.
Former candidate Parminder Singh failed in his bid to secure a seat for One Nation in Western Australia’s Legislative Council last year.
Footage has now emerged of Mr Singh in a sit down interview with Perth comedian Jasky Singh, also known by his online persona Mr Sikkant, claiming animals were smarter than humans because they were not gay.
The One Nation hopeful said in the video that women who tried woman never went back to men.
“They don’t go back because they think the man is using them,” he is heard saying in the clip
“This is different type of enjoy.”
Mr Sikkant asks the One Nation candidate if he thought people were born gay.
“No, no. It’s a mental illness,” he responds.
Mr Joyce told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing they had a large proportion of gay people in their party and a comment like that was highly offensive.
“I don’t want to say it, but I think we’re one of the gayest parties in Australia,” he told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
“We have quite a large proportion of gay people, and they’re all the same. They don’t want to be glorified. They don’t want to be vilified. They just want people to accept, and they go on and do a very good job.”
He did not confirm if Mr Singh had been disendorsed from One Nation, but said his profile had been removed from the One Nation website on Wednesday.
“It is not a good sign to be pulled off the website … if you pull someone off a website it is a pretty strong statement,” he said.
Mr Joyce said people’s views had to be within the Australian guardrails of a modern society.
“If that culture bleeds an inappropriate comment that is outside the guardrails of Australia, and that’s why I believe in the Australian culture, which says ‘no, we don’t concur with views like that.’
“People have views, of course, but they’ve got to be within the Australian guardrails.
“That’s one of our key policies, we believe in an Australian culture that is tolerant, egalitarian, and has things that are inside the guardrails.”Labor MP Patrick Gorman said homophobia has no place in Australia.
“These views from a senior One Nation member are deeply offensive,” he said in social media post..
“I completely reject them. I reject the hate and discrimination that they seek to spread.”
Mr Gorman said Australians were welcoming people who celebrated one another.
“The Perth electorate has been home to the Pride Parade since 1990 (and) I have joined the march many times,” he said.
“It is a celebration of the kind and welcoming community we are.”
