Culture

Brendan Cowell, The Veronicas And Other Australian Celebrities Come Under Fire For Bali 9 #SaveOurBoys Video

The clip features actors and musicians using the 'I Stand For Mercy' slogan to call on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to do more to save Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. It hasn't gone over well at all.

by Meg Watson  28 April 2015

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[UPDATE 1:30pm: Junkee has removed the YouTube embed, as not all contributors wanted to be associated with some sentiments expressed within it.]

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With the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran scheduled for midnight tonight, many Australians are making last minute pleas for clemency via social media and peaceful vigils across the country. And, to contribute to this last-minute effort, actor Anthony Hayes released a new video overnight which protested the sentence.

Featuring Geoffery Rush, Joel Edgerton, Peter Helliar, Guy Pearce, Deborah Mailman and more, many featured in the clip repeat the slogan “I stand for mercy”, with others directly calling  upon Tony Abbott to “save our boys”. Though the Prime Minister has been pretty forthright in his pleas to Indonesian President Widodo, many in the video called him out for not doing enough, asking him to fly to Indonesia immediately.

“Tony, if you had any courage and compassion you’d go to Indonesia and bring these boys home,” says actor Brendan Cowell. “Show some balls.”

“Mr Abbott, be a leader,” says Matt Nable, asothers call on him to “go and get them” and “fly to Indonesia, now”.

“Show some ticker, Tony Abbott,” says Anthony Hayes. “Get to Indonesia. It’s your job.”

The well-intentioned video was shared widely on Twitter by some who featured in it, as well as a number of other high-profile Australians — but it’s since faced a whole lot of criticism. When The Veronicas posted the link, one follower labelled the campaign “very uneducated”, and others accused them of unfairly attacking the PM.

The response was much the same when Brendan Cowell shared the link. The actor was accused of politicising the situation and not fully understanding the difficulties involved. Hayes then stepped in to fend off the criticism.

But that wasn’t the end of it. With most in the clip repeating the phrase “I stand for mercy”, the original Mercy Campaign has also distanced itself from the video. “The Mercy Campaign believes that the only person who can save Myuran and Andrew is President Widodo. And that it’s not too late,” they wrote to their 33,000 followers on Facebook. “We are not responsible for the ‘Save Our Boys’ video released today, as we are supportive of Australian government efforts on Myuran and Andrew’s behalf.”

Campaign co-founder Brigid Delaney also stated on Twitter that the group simply “doesn’t endorse it”.

Now, the clip has been taken down from Vimeo, as others continue to speak out against it.

“There’s almost an aggressive connotation there that I think is completely and utterly wrong, that I think has missed the mark on every single level,” Karl Stefanovic said while seeing it for the first time on Today. “I think there’s clearly an agenda there of some kind and I just don’t think it’s worth acknowledging at this point.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has also defended the PM, claiming those kind of solutions have already been explored. “Clearly, if travelling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there,” she told The Age. “We have made representations across every level, across every sector of the Indonesian government and we’ll continue to do so.”

Though Anthony Hayes continued to defend the video this morning, he’s yet to comment on why it was taken down. Others are a little more remorseful.

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