2GB’s Ben Fordham says Cate Blanchett ‘needs a reality check’ after EU speech

2GB breakfast radio host Ben Fordham has called out Cate Blanchett in a bruising monologue after she took aim at Australia.

Radio shock jock Ben Fordham has taken aim at Australian acting royalty Cate Blanchett in a bruising monologue in which he said “she needs a reality check”.

The 2GB breakfast show host took issue with a speech Blanchett gave to the European Parliament in Brussels in which she told Members that Australia’s immigration detention policy for asylum seekers is a “discredited” approach which creates “psychological damage”.

That prompted Fordham to rip into the starlet on Friday morning.

“She’s been bagging Australia on the world stage, over our treatment of asylum seekers”, he said.

“Cate Blanchett thinks that she knows better and is now apparently an expert in people smuggling”.

Ben Fordham. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Cate Blanchett at the European Parliament. Picture: AFP

Fordham told Blanchett to “stick to the movies and leave border protection to the professionals”, before pointing out 45,000 people came to Australia over five years and more than 1000 died at sea.

“What was Cate Blanchett doing while all these people were drowning,” Fordham asked.

“According to her filmography she was starring in big budget Hollywood films like Robin Hood, Indiana Jones and (The Curious Case of) Benjamin Button.”

Fordham emphatically stated he felt Blanchett was “wrong” after she said the government‘s policies around asylum seekers were “largely abandoned”.

“Wrong Cate. Wrong. If they are largely abandoned it’s because people smugglers were put out of business”, he said.

The mother-of-four said Australia’s immigration detention policy for asylum seekers has been shown to be psychologically damaging. Picture: AFP

Fordham went on to say what is inhumane is “selling people tickets on boats that are unlikely to reach their destination”, remembering the women and children who were smashed against rocks on Christmas Island unable to be saved by locals due to rough seas.

“The boat was too fragile and it crushed like a can. And that happened because we lost control of our borders”, Fordham said.

He closed his speech with one final jab.

“If Cate Blanchett had her way we would have more boats, more deaths, and more kids in detention centres”, he said.

“And if you don’t put people in detention more people risk their lives. Unless Cate wants to open one of her multimillion mansions and let everyone move into her joint”.

Australian actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR Cate Blanchett calls for more funding and humanitarian addressing the European Parliament. Picture: AFP

In her speech to the EU Blanchett, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2016, urged the European Union to focus on the protection of refugees and not on fortifying borders.

“I wonder if those who now question the [Refugee] Convention, or who see walls and barbed-wire fences as a solution to the world’s 36.4 million refugees, have ever met and talked with a refugee, or really forced themselves to confront the human cost of harmful policies such as externalisation,” the 54-year-old Australian actress said.

“As an Australian, I can tell you that we learnt the hard way, the devastating physical and mental torment that refugees experienced while corralled offshore.

“The psychological damage to those guarding them. The billions of dollars of taxpayers money wasted on a now discredited and largely abandoned approach.

“And, may I say, the resultant shame and regret many of us feel surrounding these ineffective and inhumane policies.”

Cate Blanchett with Prince William at the Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony in Singapore a day earlier. Picture: Getty Images

Blanchett said the only way to tackle growing numbers of refugees is to increase funding and humanitarian support.

“The EU can provide the model for enlightened leadership, investing, for example in opportunities and solutions closest to the countries of departure before people have embarked on dangerous journeys – focus on their protection, and not on fortifying borders,” she said.

Blanchett said she had seen for herself “the devastating impact of insufficient funding” on a visit to a South Sudan refugee camp in July.

Statistics from the UNHCR show that of the 36.4 million people who have been forced to flee their countries, 69 per cent remain in neighbouring countries.

The right to seek asylum and the provision of asylum without discrimination were central to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which marks its 75th anniversary this year, Blanchett said.

“The European Parliament should continue and build on the EU’s proud tradition of humanitarian support while also ensuring development funding goes to host countries and refugees,” she urged.

“What sits at the core of my dual roles as actor and Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR is the human condition, the human story.”

Her appearance followed a fleeting visit to Singapore the day before, where she shared a stage with Prince William for the announcement of the Earthshot Prize.

Originally published as 2GB’s Ben Fordham says Cate Blanchett ‘needs a reality check’ after EU speech