Russell Crowe copped jovial boos and a cheeky heckle when he said Jack Wighton's name during his concert in Canberra.
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But it was all in good humour that Crowe addressed the elephant in the room at his special Indoor Garden Party tour, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spotted in attendance at the Canberra Theatre.
It was confirmed in April that Wighton stunningly rejected a lucrative offer to re-sign with the Raiders, and instead will join Redfern from next season, after spending half his life in Canberra.
At Crowe's show in the capital, the Gladiator star and South Sydney Rabbitohs co-owner brought up Wighton as part of a broader story about his support for the Voice to Parliament vote this year.
Crowe pointed out South Sydney life member Albanese in the crowd and then went on to talk about Wiradjuri man Wighton and the Voice.
"I know you're not that happy with me at the moment, because of the whole Jack thing," Crowe said, which was met with some tongue-in-cheek booing.
"But the three reasons he personally gave me..."
"Don't care" a member of the audience interjected making Crowe laugh before continuing.
"It was heritage," Crowe said of Wighton's move.
"He looks at the way South Sydney operate with their Indigenous players and the respect we give our Indigenous players and he wants to be part of that.
"It's such a compliment to the way we have started running the club since 2006.
"Here's a little thing. I'm not sure if the Prime Minister ever thought of this, but when we did the takeover vote for Souths, the two options were, 'Yes, change' and 'No, we want everything to stay the same'.
"We got 75.8 percent of the vote and we were required to get 75 percent to make it work.
"I put it down to the psychological thing of people wanting to be positive and wanting to go forward.
"So later on this year when that vote comes up, 'Yes' is a great word."
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