Pop star 1, politician 0: Katy Perry lambasts Abbott over gay marriage
By politics.co.uk staff
Katy Perry has handed Australia's prime ministerial challenger Tony Abbott a big setback – by tackling him on live radio about gay marriage.
Abbott sought to get some of Perry's reflected glamour by calling up during a celebrity phone-in session on Sydney's 2DayFM radio station.
He wanted to know when Perry would tour Australia again, but faced a quick comeback from the I Kissed A Girl singer.
"Oh come on, that's not a political question. Let's talk about gay marriage," she told him.
Abbott's sister is openly gay but he is opposed to gay marriage. The issue is a big dividing line in the general election campaign because rival Kevin Rudd has pledged to offer a free vote on the issue if he is returned to power.
"I love you as a human being but I can't give you my vote," Perry told the Australian opposition leader.
"I just don't believe in your policies so that's what a lot of people should be doing."
Abbott, who attracted global mockery earlier this week after suggesting Rudd was not the "suppository of all wisdom", gaffed again during the phone-in by telling Perry he wanted her song Hot N Cold as his campaign song.
He said he had first heard it while at an Australian Football League grand final breakfast and that he thought it was a "catchy tune".
But its lyrics – criticising an inconsistent "b*tch" who tends to "overthink" and "always speak critically" – soon got Abbott reconsidering as he acknowledged the words were "interesting".
"We used to be just like twins, so in sync," Perry sings on the track. Abbott might have approved of that lyric as demonstrating a good relationship between himself and the voters, but Perry then continues: "The same energy, now's a dead battery."
