A healthy Republic vs Monarchy debate takes a turn for the worse on live television.
On July 16, 1991, Channel 9’s The Midday Show with host Ray Martin was broadcasting live a serious debate on whether Australia should stay under the British Monarchy, or jump ship and become a stand-alone Republic.
With equal amount of healthy discussion from both sides were happening, radio broadcaster and Republican supporter Ron Casey struck a nerve with singer, Vietnam veteran and proud Monarchist Normie Rowe. While Rowe was expressing his personal point of view, Casey sarcastically responded and insulted his honour as a soldier, upsetting Rowe immensely.
As the argument got more aggressive, Rowe stood up and walked over to Casey, who responded by standing up. Rowe pushed him back down into his seat, but not without Casey retaliating – standing up again and landing a punch on Rowe’s face. Security eventually separated the two and the show went into a commercial break.
In 1998, they starred in a commercial promoting Bushell’s Tea, getting together over a cup of tea with the fight on tape playing in the background.
And in true tabloid form, In 2012 Channel 7’s Today Tonight milked a 21 year anniversary of the incident with interviews and dramatic re-telling of the 20 second incident… which is weird as they already made up in the Bushell’s commercial years ago,
https://youtu.be/dXn05ivHWI8
