TV presenter and former MP Ross Cameron criticised for remarks at Q Society dinner

A TV presenter is under fire following a speech in which he described the Sydney Morning Herald as the “Sydney Morning Homosexual”.

Ross Cameron on Sky News.

A TV presenter and former MP has been criticised for giving “the worst apology ever” following a speech at an anti-Islam dinner where he made disparaging comments about gay people.

Ross Cameron, a former Liberal MP for Parramatta in western Sydney and a current commentator on Sky News made the speech at a Sydney fundraising dinner on Thursday for the Q Society, a group which styles itself as “Australia’s premier Islam critical organisation”.

The meeting, which was held to raise campaign funds for Kirralie Smith, an aspiring politician with the right-wing Australian Liberty Alliance, was also attended by controversial cartoonist Larry Pickering who said “I can’t stand Muslims” but added “they are not all bad, they do chuck pillow-biters off buildings”.

.@RossCameron4: if the reporting of Larry Pickering's comments makes someone feel isolated about their sexual preference, then I apologise pic.twitter.com/KM83TLSIHn

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 10, 2017

Mr Cameron’s talk was a rallying cry for free speech but frequently swerved into sexuality. At open point, he remarked, “I’m not really that anti-gay”.

In front of two Sydney Morning Herald journalists, who were in the room, he called the paper the “Sydney Morning Homosexual”.

“Trigger warning for the Herald, there are some heterosexuals in this room. I don’t want you to be offended by that, but there are some males who are attracted to females in this room,” Mr Cameron said.

“Now, I know, the NSW division of the Liberal Party is basically a gay club. I don’t mind that most of our parliamentary class is gay. I just wish, like Hadrian, they’d build a damn wall. That would be my preference.”

On Friday’s Sky News he said he had “no desire whatsoever to add one ounce of discomfort to any human for their sexual preference”.

He added, “If the reporting of these comments has caused someone to feel a greater sense of isolation over their attraction then I very sincerely apologise.”

But fellow Sky News presenter Janine Perrett wasn’t impressed. “That was the worst apology I have ever had,” she said. “If [it’s] the ‘reporting of these comments’, not the comments ... then if they weren’t reported you wouldn’t have apologised?”

Mr Cameron rejected Ms Perrett’s summation of his speech. “If you read my speech, it was a speech in defence of dissent and difference,” he said.

During the talk on Thursday, Mr Cameron said people should speak their mind more. “What irritates me the most is the preferred method to shut down debate is to say the person who disagrees with me is a bad, evil, bigoted, redneck, racist xenophobe.”

Of his host, he said “there could not be a more authentic expression of the goodness of Australia than Kirralie Smith”.

At the same function, Mr Pickering was even less careful with his words insulting Muslims and gay people in the same sentence.

“I can stand Muslims,” he said. “If they are in the same street as me, I start shaking. But they are not all bad, they do chuck pillow-biters off buildings.”

He said Islam was “worse than a load of s***”. “It’s the belief system that’s wrong. It’s un-Australian, it’s not us. It has no place here.”

On his website, Mr Pickering later said his remarks were nothing more than “the sort of bulls*** banter exchanged between holes on a golf course”.

In a statement, Ms Smith said she was “completely unaware” of Mr Pickering’s “pillow biter” comments despite the fact she was at the event and it was held in her honour.

She praised Mr Cameron’s “dry, sharp humour” but added that she “did not agree with some of his statements”. “What Pickering said was wrong and he went too far,” she said.

“Larry has made a career out of being offensive so the fact he said something outrageous at our event is not a surprise nor is it news.”

News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt, a staunch defender of free speech, criticised both speakers and said Ms Smith should have condemned them.

In a column published on Friday, he said, “When a Pickering speaks so foully, we must say so. We must condemn. We must with our good speech damn the bad.”