Music

Cory Bernardi Reckons Savage Garden And The Hilltop Hoods Should ‘Thank’ Him

Welcome to Australia, where our politicians feud with popstars.

by Osman Faruqi  18 January 2018
cory bernardi

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In the latest example of conservative politicians absolutely losing their mind over calls to change the date of Australia Day, Senator Cory Bernardi yesterday launched the “Australian Conservatives 100” in response to triple j shifting the date of the Hottest 100.

Bernardi, whom we doubt has ever voted in or listened to the Hottest 100, is furious at triple j and has launched his own alternative countdown, complete with an extremely weird playlist.

Some of the Australian artists included on Bernardi’s “Australian Conservatives 100” slammed the senator for associating their music with his brand of conservative politics.

Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes asked Bernardi to remove his music from “this stunt”.

Hayes also tweeted at a number of prominent Australian artists featured on the playlist, including Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and Christine Anu, asking if they were “cool with the far right Australian Conservatives using our music to promote their agenda”.

Jimmy Barnes’ son, Today co-host David Campbell, tweeted that he thought it was unlikely his dad would want be associated with Bernardi.

Bernardi tweeted back at Hayes, telling him “get over yourself”.

The Hilltop Hoods, whose song ‘1955’ (which is incidentally the year Cory Bernardi wants to take us all back to) was also included on the playlist, made their feelings known very bluntly:

This morning Bernardi hit back at the Hoods and Hayes, because this is Australia and our politicians love to spend their time warring with popular local musicians.

In an interview with ABC Radio National he said the reaction from musicians was “intolerant censorship” and that “all Australians” should be allowed to listen to their music regardless of their politics.

Which is fine, but Bernardi hasn’t just made a random playlist to share his favourite Aussie tunes. He’s launched a very political campaign designed to defend Australia Day and attack triple j for moving the date of the Hottest 100. In that context it’s completely fair for artists to distance themselves from him.

But Bernardi is denying his playlist is political, even though it was created by his political party and shared on its website and Twitter account.

“I want people to listen to great Australian music and I’ve made it easy for them to do so,” he said. “[Artists] can beat it up and complain, they can threaten me with legal action… the simple answer is: take your songs off the streaming service if you don’t want people to play them and support them.”

He went on to say the artists included on his playlist should be “thanking us” because they earn royalties every time the tracks are played.

When asked to respond to the Hilltop Hoods tweet Bernardi said: “I actually do enjoy their music”, which sounds kind of bullshit to us.

“I don’t have to enjoy their political or social activism to say, ‘Hey, they’re talented, they’re Australian, and they’ve got some boppy little songs that I kind of enjoy’.”

There you have it folks, Cory Bernardi’s review of the Hilltop Hoods: “some boppy little songs”.

Help.