Anthony Albanese has slammed former Australian of the Year Grace Tame two days after she wore a shirt at an event he hosted featuring the slogan: ‘F*** Murdoch’.
The 2021 Australian of the Year wore the T-shirt as she was greeted by a grinning Mr Albanese and his fiancée, Jodie Haydon, at The Lodge in Canberra on Saturday.
Ms Tame, 30, has long taken issue with how her story has been portrayed in the media, particularly by News Corp, which is owned by Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch and his family.
Mr Albanese smiled as he shook hands with Ms Tame and then later during a short, awkward conversation.
However, the Prime Minister did not mention the T-shirt until ABC Radio Perth pressed it on Monday.
‘I held a function,’ he said.
‘It is something that, in my view, took away from the people who were there, and my focus was simply on that.
‘I want debate to be respectful… and that’s a choice that she made. People are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for.’
Mr Albanese defended his decision to pose for a photo with Ms Tame at a later press conference.
The 2021 Australian of the Year wore a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘F*** Murdoch’ on the front
2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame wore an incendiary T-Shirt to Saturday’s morning tea event with Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon
‘People came through,’ he said.
‘There was a queue of more than – I don’t know how many people were in the queue, around about at least 60 – there was all of the Australia Day nominees, there was all of the past Australians of the Year, there was the Australia Day Council, people were just there.
‘One by one, rolling through being welcomed.
‘It (the T-shirt) was clearly designed to get attention. I don’t intend to add to that attention because I do think that it takes away from what the day should be about – which is the amazing people who were nominated as Australians of the Year.’
Mr Albanese and Ms Tame shared an awkward exchange in front of the cameras on Saturday.
‘Thank you for having me back,’ Ms Tame said, having previously visited the Lodge as outgoing Australian of the Year in 2022 when she notoriously gave then-prime minister Scott Morrison a contemptuous side-eye look.
In 2022, the outspoken advocate (pictured) for survivors of sexual assault stirred controversy when she attended the same event as the outgoing Australian of the Year
The 30-year-old, who just this week stepped down from her foundation and announced she had been appointed a brand ambassador for Nike
‘Reliving memory?’ Mr Albanese asked.
‘Reliving some trauma maybe,’ Ms Tame replied to a nervously laughing Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon.
Ms Tame told the ABC she wore the shirt to ‘speak truth to power’.
‘This whole awards program is a platform for making change,’ she said.
She said she believed the Prime Minister was ‘quite uncomfortable’ when he saw what she was wearing.
‘I will never lose my passion,’ she said.
Ms Tame also made a quip about her confronting choice.
‘There should be a little clause underneath [the words] with an asterisk that says “not literally”,’ she said.
Even the maker of the T-shirt, writer Dave Milner who founded political commentary website The Shot, expressed surprise to see it worn to a prime ministerial function.
‘That surreal feeling when an Australian of the Year wears your website’s merch to meet the Prime Minister,’ he said.
Grace Tame (right) gave Scott Morrison (left) a filthy side-eye glance at a morning tea for the 2022 Australian state and territory award recipients at the Lodge in Canberra
Grace Tame is pictured holding up her Australian of the Year award in Canberra in 2021
In 2022, the outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual assault stirred controversy when she attended the same event as the outgoing Australian of the Year.
When Ms Tame and her then-partner Max Heerey arrived, they were greeted by then-PM Morrison and his wife Jenny, who congratulated them on their recent engagement.
But Ms Tame remained stony faced as they posed for pictures, which captured her giving Mr Morrison an ice-cold ‘side-eye’ expression that quickly sparked a flood of memes.
She later addressed the snub on Twitter, commenting that the survival of abuse culture ‘is dependent on submissive smiles, self-defeating surrenders and hypocrisy’.
‘What I did wasn’t an act of martyrdom in the gender culture war,’ she wrote.
‘It’s true that many women are sick of being told to smile, often by men, for the benefit of men. But it’s not just women who are conditioned to smile…To conform to the status quo, it’s all of us.’
Ms Tame had been highly critical of Mr Morrison and his government’s response to allegations of sexual assault and toxic workplace culture in federal parliament.
She has also been vocal about her perceived unsympathetic treatment by the media, especially Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp.
Former prime minister and fellow Murdoch combatant Kevin Rudd even once piped up on News Corp’s treatment of Ms Tame, supporting the activist on Twitter after the Courier Mail published an article questioning her criticism of Scott Morrison.
‘There goes Murdoch, trying to bully Grace Tame like they have so many voices for progress over the years,’ he wrote.
‘They whine about ‘cancel culture’ but they will try to cancel anyone who doesn’t share their reactionary worldview. We need more diversity, not less.’
