Just days after penning an open letter to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announcing her boycott of the airline in the wake of its support of same-sex marriage, Margaret Court appeared The Project in a frosty exchange of both words and opinions.
In espousing her belief that marriage is “between a man and a woman”, Court fielded a litany of confusion from the show’s panellists, who challenged her perception that Joyce was using Qantas “as a platform to push and intimidate”.
This point was one host Waleed Aly took initial issue with, pointing out there is nothing wrong with the CEO of a large company expressing an opinion that has “overwhelming majority support from the Australian public, his staff and perhaps his shareholders”.
“That’s where I don’t agree with you, because there’s very many people in this nation – normal people – farmers, mums and dads [who don’t support gay marriage],” Court responded.
“I may have been a tennis champion but even as a young person I’d agree that marriage is a man and a woman. If people read the first two chapters of the bible they’d understand.”
Only a minute or so into the interview, and sentences into Court’s first response, Aly challenged the 74-year-old former tennis champion’s stance and the fact she appeared to be ignoring national sentiment.
“I feel the need to pick you up on this. 62-64 per cent of Australians are in favour of this, so you can have your view but you can’t change those facts,” he said.
Mia Freedman sits down with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and talks to him about gay marriage in Australia. Post continues…