The PM and other high ranking officials criticise “crazy” decision to cut Carmen.

Many opera lovers, not only in Western Australia but across the country were outraged last week after it emerged that WA Opera had decided to embargo any staging of Bizet’s iconic and much loved opera Carmen over the next two years, as the Opera’s depiction of smoking was at odds with the company’s new sponsor, Healthway.

News of the decision has since travelled well beyond Australia’s borders and has been covered by mainstream media as far afield as Russia, China and the UK. The announcement of the ban has turned into a very public embarrassment for WA Opera’s General Manager, Carolyn Chard, as several high ranking officials have voiced their condemnation of the decision in the media in recent days. The Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett and the Western Australia Health Minister Kim Hames have all spoken out against the ban, branding the decision as “political correctness gone crazy”.

In an interview broadcast on Melbourne’s W3A Radio last week, the PM, who very rarely speaks publically about the arts, summarised his objection to the ban saying “Opera is an exaggeration and if we are...