Cooper Allin. Credit: Simon Santi/The West Australian, via Facebook
Being a politician can get a bit hairy at times. Just ask WA Premier Mark McGowan.
At the weekend he was discussing hard borders and massive road-building projects. On Monday he had a far more significant matter to get his head around: the importance to society of the Great Australian Mullet. The hairstyle, that is. Not the fish.
At his Monday press conference, the Premier was roped into a very hairy situation by a journalist when he was asked to comment on a looming crisis that threatens to engulf all of WA and, soon, the entire nation.
Should the Great Australian Mullet – and the elegant wearers thereof – be barred entry to certain pubs? Is it unconstitutional? Is it un-Australian?
Are we on the slippery slope to the undemocratic banning all those sporting questionable hairstyles? Where would that leave us if notorious bad-hairers Boris Johnson or Donald Trump wanted to visit Australia? Would we have to ban them too, thereby creating a diplomatic crisis?
But the Premier seemed blissfully unaware of the global implications when he dissolved into laughter as he was asked to comment on 18-year-old Cooper Allin from Perth, who was refused entry to a local pub because he has a mullet.
Allin claimed “discrimination” and said all he wanted to do was “sink a few frothies”. But a bouncer at the El Grotto bar in Scarborough told him his mullet wasn’t welcome.
After composing himself, the Premier leapt to the defence of mullet-wearers everywhere. “I just encourage people with mullets to rise up and rebel against these extreme rules pubs are imposing,” he said.
“I think you should be free to have a mullet, and go to a pub. I don’t think there should be rules around that.”
McGowan added that “some of my best friends have mullets” and then questioned the assembled press pack as to whether they had ever sported the iconic Aussie hairstyle.
According to Allin, he was taken aback by his encounter with Perth’s mullet-hating mafia.
“He (the bouncer) said it was the owner’s rule so he wouldn’t let me in,” he told the Sunrise breakfast show TV program. “I reckon it’s a bit silly, I mean it’s a mullet. Heaps of people have mullets.”
Will Allin be getting a haircut anytime soon? No. He’ll just find other mullet-friendly venues where he can quench his thirst.
“I wasn’t there to have a haircut, I was there to sink frothies,” he said.