'Nothing to do with marriage equality': alleged Tony Abbott attacker speaks out

Extract from The Guardian

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Tony Abbott

The man who allegedly head-butted former Australian prime minister says he was motivated by ‘personal hatred’ of Abbott rather than marriage equality

Tasmanian anarchist and DJ Astro ‘Funknukl’ Labe who has been charged with assault after allegedly head-butting the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Photograph: Adam Morton for the Guardian

Adam Morton in Hobart

Friday 22 September 2017 14.11 AEST Last modified on Friday 22 September 2017 19.52 AEST

The man charged with assaulting Tony Abbott has denied the alleged attack had anything to do with the same-sex marriage postal vote.
Hobart DJ Astro “Funknukl” Labe, 38, was charged with one count of common assault on Friday over an alleged attack on the Hobart waterfront on Thursday afternoon.
Labe was wearing a rainbow “yes” badge when he allegedly asked Abbott to shake his hand before attempting to head-butt him on Morrison Street about 4.35pm.
“I must state in no uncertain terms that this has nothing whatsoever to do with marriage equality,” Labe said.
Labe told the Guardian that he supported the “yes” case, but was not a campaigner. He had been drinking before the alleged attack. “My motivations were alcohol fuelled to a degree,” he said.

“Someone had just stuck a campaign sticker on me. I’m not an activist but, of course, I believe in human rights and equality.”
He said he was an anarchist and a pacifist who believed showing respect for other people was the most importance value. He said Abbott was a “completely disgusting person” who did not share that respect.
“He’s one of sickest examples of why Australian society is so archaic in 2017. There is no connection to the Bible in his actions,” he told Guardian Australia.
“He’s a gentrified rich kid. He personifies everything I hate politically, and he’s not even good at it.
“If I see an opportunity to improve my life and those around me by nutting Tony Abbott, I’m a pretty pragmatic guy.”
Labe told News.com.au that he had been spurred on to act simply out of dislike for Abbott rather than over marriage equality.
“It was nothing really remotely to do with that. It’s just about Tony Abbott — the fucking worm that he is,” he said.
“All it was is I saw Tony Abbott and I’d had half a skinful and I wanted to nut the cunt.”

  Tony Abbott describes assault by equal marriage supporter – audio

But Labe said he regretted the incident, and that he had been through a tough time personally in recent weeks.
It is believed an online post late on Thursday by a friend joking about crowd-sourcing a legal fund if the DJ ended up in court helped lead police to knock on his door just before midday on Friday.
A spokesperson for Tasmanians United for Marriage Equality, Robin Banks, said that by his own admission the alleged attacker had no links to the yes campaign other than a badge, which was given to him by a friend.
“We don’t know this man and certainly don’t condone his stupid act,” Banks said.
Labe was released on bail to appear in the Hobart magistrates court at 9.30am on 23 October.
There was confusion on Friday over whether the alleged attacker had indicated to Abbott that he was angry about the former prime minister’s strong stance against same-sex marriage.

Abbott told Sky News the man who allegedly attacked him told him “you deserve it because of what you have been saying”.
He linked the attack to what he described as “a lot of bullying in the campaign” by those advocating a “yes” vote.
“I think pretty clearly this bloke wanted to make his contribution to the current debate and instead of doing it respectfully he did it through a little bit of politically motivated violence, or attempted violence,” Abbott said.
But the network quoted an advisor to Abbott saying the attacker had not specifically mentioned same-sex marriage.
Australian Marriage Equality campaigners spent Friday strongly condemning the alleged attack and denouncing political violence.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, labelled the incident “disgraceful”.
The Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz claimed that the alleged incident is a “harbinger” of more violence, despite conceding it is not indicative of the yes campaign generally.
Turnbull said Australia had a tradition of respectful political debate “sometimes with strong views expressed, but without violence”.
“This is one of a number, a relatively small number of incidents, but any one is one too many.”

Turnbull said “of course” the incident did not undermine the yes case generally, but campaigners should recognise that if they used violent or abusive language or engaged in “violent conduct”, they were not helping their case.