Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised 2021 Australian Of The Year recipient Grace Tame for wearing a super snazzy “FUCK MURDOCH” shirt to the Australian Of The Year morning tea.
ICYMI, Tame won the internet and our hearts all over again on the weekend when she rocked up to the Australian Of The Year morning tea with a shirt that read “FUCK MURDOCH” — you know, the old white dude who’s really rich and has a ‘yuge media empire that Tame has previously criticised in an op-ed for Crikey in 2023.
While many of us swooned and sighed (lovingly) at the delightful shirt, Australia’s leader had a bone to pick with Tame’s attire.
“I held a function. It is something that, in my view, took away from the people who were there and my focus was simply on that,” said, per the Sydney Morning Herald.
When he was asked why he didn’t respond to the shirt, Albanese said he didn’t want to add to the attention the activist gained and that the focus should’ve been on the people nominated for this year’s Australians Of The Year.
“There was a queue of more than – how many people were in the queue? Around about at least 60. There was all of the Australia Day nominees,” he added.
“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. And [Tame’s 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.”
Although he “clearly” disagreed with Tame’s attire, he defended taking a pic with her, stating: “I want the debate to be respectful. And that’s a choice that she made. We do have in this country, people are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people for who the event was primarily for.”
The conversation surrounding Tame’s attire continued on ABC Radio Perth, when Albo was asked why she was allowed to wear it in the first place, the PM responded: “You’re suggesting that this was within my power. When someone walked in wearing that.”
When he was told Tame should’ve been asked to leave for her wardrobe choice, Albo replied, “People were invited, and my focus was on the people who were receiving the awards”.
Why Did Grace Tame wear a shirt that reads “FUCK MURDOCH”?
As mentioned previously, the 2021 Australian Of The Year has previously criticised Murdoch in the public, penning in an op-ed to Crikey that she “will always be exploitation material in the eyes of the Murdoch press”.
When pressed on why she wore the shirt — made by the Lonely Kids Club, FYI — on Saturday, Tame said: “It’s a great shirt and says it all, doesn’t it”.
“If we want to dismantle the concentration of morbid wealth that undemocratically rules the world, and really makes the major political decisions that affect the everyday person; if we want climate action and if we want justice, if we want truth, I think it’s probably a good place to start,” the activist said, per the SMH.
“If you want to get a few birds with one giant, ugly stone, this is it.”
To top off her golden quotes, Tame said her message to Murdoch was, “You’ve ruined the world.”
Furthermore, on Instagram, Tame wrote a caption double downing on her stance against the NewsCorp mogul.
“NOT HERE TO FUCK SPIDERS, Just MURDOCH (not literally, *ew*) and the rest of the morbidly, dynastically wealthy white supremacist corporate oligarchs ruining our planet; funding genocide, war, general destruction; and creating/fuelling division worldwide just to maintain their own power and control,” she wrote.
This isn’t the first time the 2021 Australian Of The Year won the hearts of Aussies during the highly-coveted awards.
In 2022, Tame went viral for giving then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison the cold shoulder during an Australian Of The Year presser.
Shortly after, the activist took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain her actions, stating that 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 and conform to the visibly rotting status quo.
“It’s all of us.”
Ahhh, Grace Tame. The iconic and legend you are!
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