Bracewell also delved into the exchange on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about freedom of speech is we\u2019re also free to make fun of you if we think that maybe the guy with like 100 houses isn\u2019t really looking out for the best interests of the battler,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a battler, just trying to put eight roofs over his head, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bracewell disclosed that Hughes had sent her \u201can essay\u201d via direct messages on Instagram.<\/p>\n
After Hughes privately responded to her comments, she took to Instagram in a post cheekily captioned as a thank you for the birthday wishes.<\/p>\n
While the first slide was a smiling selfie, the second featured a screenshot of several direct messages the radio presenter had sent her in an attempt to defend his views.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe corruption by Labor Govts in Victoria and Federally is sending the country completely broke. That\u2019s my focus in politics,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick of politicians thinking they can control the public to believe they are helping the disadvantaged while really just getting stinking rich themselves through outright thievery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bracewell can be seen simply replying, \u201cit\u2019s my birthday Hughesy I\u2019m not reading all this\u201d.<\/p>\n
Seemingly unaware his messages were included in the post, Hughes called Bracewell a \u201clegend\u201d as he wished her a happy birthday in the comments.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old eventually added a second comment acknowledging the reveal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t seen that second pic when I posted the congrats! I appreciate you getting the message out there! Win win!\u201d<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s federal budget was released in May, inspiring Hughes\u2019 impassioned television appearance last month.<\/p>\n
According to Nine News, he described the current Labor Government \u201cidiots\u201d and an \u201cabsolute disgrace\u201d in the now viral rant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has cost the whole country so much money already, the housing market has tanked, they\u2019ve cost every Australian who owns a home probably 15% of their housing value, you can\u2019t lie about that Jim and Albo, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes\u2019 comments about non-citizens\u2019 inclusion in the first home buyers\u2019 scheme have attracted particular criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am happy for you to stay here, or if you want to go home you can go home, but you are not getting our money to buy houses here\u2026 that\u2019s insane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While he declined to affiliate with the anti-immigrant party One Nation, Hughes\u2019 stance has been condemned as populist by many Australian political commentators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bracewell also delved into the exchange on TikTok. \u201cThe thing about freedom of speech is we\u2019re also free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[534,1135,151362,6325,107632,40367,142013,10039,9635,156,2174,5630,194,1073,25020,60677,111,139,69,85934,175094,18935,1072],"class_list":["post-534985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-amid","tag-australian","tag-banter","tag-birthday","tag-bracewell","tag-comedian","tag-comic","tag-controversial","tag-dave","tag-entertainment","tag-exchange","tag-hughes","tag-kiwi","tag-media","tag-melanie","tag-messages","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-playful","tag-poked","tag-posts","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}