(Image Source: International Business Times)
BY AMY WILLMOTT
You're watching multisource entertainment news analysis from Newsy.
Controversy strikes after an episode of ABC Australia’s satire ‘At Home With Julia’ shows a lookalike actress portraying the Prime Minister and her first bloke ‘canoodling’ under the Aussie Flag.
The series pokes fun of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and partner Tim Mathieson’s private lives, but some say ABC has gone too far with its controversial third installment of the satire...
Laughing. This is nice, isn’t it. No one to bother us. Not even Bill.
Sorry Julia. Bill Shorten. (SHOR-TEN) Are you alright I thought I heard voices?
No Bill I’m fine. Just having an urgent debriefing. Everyone’s feeling most satisfied with the outcome.
The scene caused uproar in a Parliamentary meeting yesterday, ABC News reports Nationals Member of Parliament John Forrest was particularly unhappy with the flags usage;
“Having sex in the Prime Minister's office under the Australian flag is the last straw for me ... it is sick, I'm offended, and we should take a stand."
Politicians are questioning the funding of the series as a result of the racy one-minute scene. Here’s Senator John Williams on Sky News.
“When you have taxpayers money that finance the ABC, and you have programs that clearly offend some, you ask the questions why. As I’ve said I have not seen one minute of the program and I will not see one minute of the program.”
The scene has offended the parents of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan. Nine News reports...
REPORTER: "The parents of Aussie digger Marcus Case who who was killed in Afghanistan in May and was brought home in a casket wrapped in the Australian flag say its disrespectful and a disgrace."
CASE: “Well we just feel disgusted quite frankly. We find it offensive, that’d be enough. It’s a total disrespect for the flag which, you know, soldiers forever have given their lives under it.”
ABC is defending the show --- saying they don’t know what all the fuss is about. A spokesman for the show tells The Herald Sun...
"If it's OK for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don't see why it can't be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love."
Meanwhile, The Global Post has a sarcastic take on the matter...
“For those not in the know, under Australian law it is illegal to sit on the Australian flag. Using it as a sheet however, is quite alright – particularly if you are the prime minister”
It seems the real Prime Minister isn’t as ‘hot and bothered’ by the incident as other Aussie politicians. On Australia’s Today Show, she said she wouldn’t comment because she has bigger things on her mind.
Transcript by Newsy
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