Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Prime Minister to march in Sydney
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A high-profile ABC host has suggested Barnaby Joyce put on an ‘effeminate voice’ in a speech where he attacked Anthony Albanese for his plan to be the first sitting PM to march at Mardi Gras.

During last week’s sitting of Parliament, Mr Joyce slammed Mr Albanese’s priorities – noting the Labor leader attended the Woodford Folk Festival and the Australian Open tennis, and had announced his plans to be front and centre at the LGBTI pride march. 

But Mr Joyce said Mr Albanese had spent only a few hours in lawless Alice Springs earlier this year. 

In a tense Radio National interview on Monday, Ms Karvelas addressed Mr Joyce, saying: ‘You spent a lot of Question Time last week heckling the Prime Minister about this. 

‘I’ve been told by several people you put on an effeminate voice and heckled what he would be wearing.’ 

Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Prime Minister to march in Sydney's Mardi Gras this Saturday (pictured with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in 2022)

Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Prime Minister to march in Sydney's Mardi Gras this Saturday (pictured with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in 2022)

Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Prime Minister to march in Sydney’s Mardi Gras this Saturday (pictured with Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in 2022)

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce criticised the PM on his priorities in a Parliamentary speech (pictured) in which he was accused of 'putting on an effeminate voice'

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce criticised the PM on his priorities in a Parliamentary speech (pictured) in which he was accused of 'putting on an effeminate voice'

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce criticised the PM on his priorities in a Parliamentary speech (pictured) in which he was accused of ‘putting on an effeminate voice’

But Mr Joyce furiously denied that he had put on such a voice – and suggested the Prime Minister’s office was spinning the senior journalist. 

‘No I don’t think I put on an effeminate voice. It’s good you’re tuned in to the Prime Minister’s hype,’ Joyce said.

‘I’m not surprised the Prime Minister’s office and the ABC are working hand in glove’.

Karvelas insisted he give an explanation over the speech.  

Joyce said: ‘I said (to Mr Albanese) why are you going to the Mardi Gras. Why are you going to the tennis. Why aren’t you spending more time in Alice Springs.’

She asked: ‘Did you ask him what he was wearing to the Mardi Gras?’

‘No I made a comment about what he was wearing at Woodford (folk festival).’ 

Karvelas asked why he ‘zeroed in’ on this event and if he had a problem with Prime Ministers marching at Mardi Gras

‘No, knock yourself out.’

‘I mentioned him going to Woodford, to the (Australian Open) tennis. I’m focused on people in Alice Springs. Children, woman, people whose properties are being broken into.’

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas said 'quite a few people' told her Mr Joyce 'heckled what Mr Albanese would be wearing' at the Mardi Gras

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas said 'quite a few people' told her Mr Joyce 'heckled what Mr Albanese would be wearing' at the Mardi Gras

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas said ‘quite a few people’ told her Mr Joyce ‘heckled what Mr Albanese would be wearing’ at the Mardi Gras

The high-profile ABC presenter seen above during a Mardi Gras Fair Day event

The high-profile ABC presenter seen above during a Mardi Gras Fair Day event

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The high-profile ABC presenter seen above during a Mardi Gras Fair Day event

Joyce in his parliamentary speech last Monday accused the Prime Minister of just ‘ticking a box’ to say he’d been to the town after visiting Alice Springs for just four hours.

‘I saw him at Woodford one year in a black T-shirt, lately in a white T-shirt, with his black jeans… I think of how lucky we are that he’s so hip.’

‘He also spends days at the tennis; he obviously has a great love of the tennis.’

‘Now I hear our Prime Minister is going to go to Mardi Gras. Isn’t that great—we’re so lucky! This guy is so hip! He’s 60 going on 16.’

‘I don’t know how long he will spend at Mardi Gras – that’s his business – but I do know that he only spent four hours in Alice Springs; I know that!’

The central Australian town is in the midst of a crime wave with business broken into daily and a recent community meeting to tackle the problem drawing 3,000 people.

In just one year assaults have gone up 51 per cent – 2823 reported in a community of 26,000.

Domestic violence incidents are up 65 per cent and alcohol-linked assaults are up 68 per cent.

The assault rate in Alice Springs is five fold that of Northern Territory capital Darwin. 

This Saturday, Mr Albanese will be the first sitting Prime Minister to march at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The event is one of the largest Pride events in the world promoting LGBTQI rights.

He will be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, the first openly gay woman in Australian Parliament.

‘We speak a lot about tolerance – and tolerance is really important – but this is about a step that is way more important than tolerance,’ he said.

‘We need to celebrate our diversity, not just tolerate it because our diversity is what gives our society strength.’

What Barnaby Joyce said in Parliament 

Barnaby Joyce: ‘I rise today to say how lucky we are to have such a hip prime minister. I’ve been contemplating just how lucky we are. I saw him at Woodford one year in a black T-shirt—lately in a white T-shirt—with his black jeans on and his hat on. Nothing wrong with wearing a hat! I think of how lucky we are that he’s so hip. He also goes to the tennis. We’re very lucky to see him there, swanning it with the top end of town—and good luck to him. We’re incredibly lucky we’ve got a prime minister that can go to Woodford and also go to the tennis—and spend days at the tennis; he obviously has a great love of the tennis.

‘Now I hear our Prime Minister is going to go to Mardi Gras. Isn’t that great—we’re so lucky! This guy is so hip! He’s 60 going on 16. We’re very lucky. I don’t know how long he will spend at Mardi Gras—that’s his business—but I do know that he only spent four hours in Alice Springs; I know that! There are some rather big issues in Alice Springs, and they continue on. If it’s not Alice Springs, it’s Garbutt, Townsville, Cairns, Moree, Dubbo—so many regional towns where the issue of law and order is paramount. I’m wondering if the Prime Minister might want to go back to Alice Springs, and maybe visit a few other towns and take this agenda under his belt because that’s what’s really important to people dealing with the crime issues and law and order issues of these regional areas.

‘There was another place I didn’t see him. I searched, but I really didn’t see him at Australia Day. There were no Australia Day ceremonies he seemed to grace. Apparently they’re not hip enough! A lot of people in my electorate are very proud of Australia Day. Australia Day is a great day. We recognise the work, especially the civil sacrifice—not the military sacrifice but the civil sacrifice—of so many people who have done so much for this nation. We recognise that Australia is a country that was founded basically on our incredible Indigenous heritage but also on the legacy of people who started as a penal colony—not as an invading army but as a penal colony. We have done so well.

‘But now we move forward, and apparently the Prime Minister of Woodford, the Prime Minister of the tennis and the Prime Minister of Mardi Gras wants to bring forward constitutional change that will have huge ramifications for how this nation works into the future, for how the operating manual of our country operates. There are real concerns that have been raised over and over again around why we would be discriminating against people and their access to this great article of democracy, why we would discriminate on the premise of their DNA whether they have access or not.

‘Currently the world is going through very tenuous times. Tonight we are hearing about the fourth balloon being shot down over North America—over Alaska, Canada twice and South Carolina. I don’t know whether that calls for someone who is hip or for someone who is totally and utterly focused on what is before us. It would probably be better for the people at Woodford or at the tennis or at Mardi Gras to have someone that they know is focused totally and utterly on the defence of this nation—

Speaker of the House: ‘Order! I just want to remind the member of standing order 90, about reflecting on the motives of a member. I bring him back to his speech.

Mr Joyce: ‘I think it would be best that our nation reflect on what is before us at the moment. It is very sobering to turn on the news tonight and find out that, over the Great Lakes, yet another balloon has been shot down. It is incumbent upon us to make sure that we make this nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible. It is not the time for flirtations with peripheral issues, with issues that might be important but are not central to what this nation needs to sustain itself into the future of what is becoming, more and more and more, a very tenuous world. I hope that as we go forward we focus on making sure that power is as cheap as possible as quickly as possible. I hope we have a sobering and more informed view on such things as nuclear power. And I hope that the Prime Minister, on attending the Mardi Gras, reflects on the other things that are important to this nation.’

Source: Hansard