Despite the fact he doesn’t live in the country, British comedian Russell Brand has taken an active interest in Australian politics, first calling PM Tony Abbott “a raving lunatic,” among other things, and now vowing to protest Sydney’s lockout laws while here on tour in October.
Brand has criticised the laws, which prevent people from entering venues in the lockout zone after 1.30am, for being a violation of citizen’s freedom.
“I would like to know the real reason they are doing it — to stop people assembling, to stop people communicating? Normally, the answer is, in some ways, the interests of the powerful have at some point been inhibited or impacted” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Anything that impairs people’s personal freedom, generally speaking, or collective freedoms or public freedoms I am broadly against.”
The comedian is due to play two shows in Sydney – one at the Opera House and one at Qantas Credit Union Arena. The latter is outside the lockout zone, but Brand is prepared to launch his protest the night of the Opera House show.
“We will be keeping our venues open way beyond the time of any curfew, we will be serving whatever drinks people want way into the night and we will consider it our duty as citizens of a free planet to stay up way past everybody’s bedtime til we are so tired we all start crying just to defy this preposterous law,” he said.
We’ll see how he goes with trying to keep one of Australia’s most iconic venues open past 1.30am but if anybody’s going to be able to do it, it’s Brand, who most definitely has the gift of the gab.
Brand is set to be very busy while he’s here. “I might try and gay marry him [Tony Abbott] when I get there. And we’ll be talking about the immigration situation,” he previously told News Limited – another very difficult task.
Watch: Russell Brand – “Tony Abbot, Masturbation skit”
https://youtu.be/NW1iiLosrXY
