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Tony Abbott slammed for his reaction to daughter’s engagement

<p>Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances stunned the nation when she <a href="/lifestyle/relationships/2017/11/tony-abbott-daughter-engaged/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">revealed over the weekend</span></strong></a> that she was engaged to her boyfriend of just two weeks, former Olympian rower turned weightlifter, Sam Loch.</p> <p>Now, the ex-Prime Minister has finally broken his silence over the surprise announcement, and people aren’t happy with his reaction.</p> <p>“Really thrilled at the news of Francie and Sam’s engagement,” Tony wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyAbbottMHR" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">on Twitter</span></strong></a> last night. “We are very proud of her and the Abbotts are looking forward to welcoming Sam into the family.”</p> <p>Given the recent <a href="/news/news/2017/11/australia-same-sex-marriage-survey-result-announced/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">“Yes” result in the same-sex marriage postal survey</span></strong></a>, social media users quickly criticised the former PM, who spearheaded the “No” campaign, labelling him a “hypocrite”.</p> <p>“So two weeks is fine to get engaged, but gay couples who have been together years, no? Right,” wrote Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/TiffanyBakker" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Tiffany Bakker</span></strong></a>.</p> <p>“Thanks for protecting the sanctity of marriage just so that total strangers like your daughter and her new fiancé can get married,” said <a href="https://twitter.com/NathanhyperBole" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Nathan Cole</span></strong></a>.</p> <p>Others joked that Frances simply wanted to change her surname “as soon as possible,” while Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/sarahegregg" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sarah Gregg</span></strong></a> pondered, “Should we vote as a country whether they are able to get married or not Tone?”</p> <p>Tell us in the comments below, what do you think of Tony’s response? Is he simply being supportive, or can you see why people are calling him hypocritical?</p>

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Magda Szubanski's heated moment you missed on Q&A

<p>The same-sex marriage debate became even more heated when Magda Szubanski took “No” campaigners to task on ABC’s <em>Q&amp;A</em> program last night, where she was joined by host Tony Jones, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies, Jesuit priest and law professor Frank Brennan and “No” campaign spokesperson Karina Okotel.</p> <p>With the deadline to vote looming, Okotel argued that marriage should only be between men and women, and that “you can’t change an institution that has always existed without there being consequences”.</p> <p>Szubanski offered the perfect clap-back, explaining that different laws for gay and straight marriages was akin to a gay AFL player winning the Brownlow Medal but instead being given “the civil acknowledgment of your very excellent effort” award.</p> <p>“You’re sending a very clear message of equal but different,” Szubanski argued.</p> <p>She also pointed out that passing same-sex marriage would not affect society’s view on men and women given that LGBT people are a “really small percentage of the population”.</p> <p>“You can’t breed us out of existence because we do originate mostly from straight people,” she explained. “But there does seem to be a constant number of roughly 10 per cent of same-sex attracted people. It’s not like there’s an army of us who are going to take over. We just want to have the same rights and protections.</p> <p>“Believe me, this is coming on the tail end of the oppressions that we’ve been through and I don’t want to come across as a whinger but we have to acknowledge the history of this.</p> <p>“What it would mean to us to be fully acknowledged, I don’t know if you can really understand after the bashings, the discriminations, the murders. This isn’t just out of the blue. It comes within an historical context.</p> <p>“How would you feel if Sri Lankan people were told that you can’t be married?” she questioned the Sri Lankan-born Okotel.</p> <p>Last night’s episode comes days after it was revealed that more than 70 per cent of survey forms had been returned, with polls suggesting a “Yes" majority. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will announce the results on November 15.</p> <p>What do you think of Australia's same-sex marriage debate? Tell us in the comments below.</p>

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