Penny Wong says it is “unsurprising” Peter Dutton would use an historical slur to attack the prime minister’s response to China, noting the opposition leader had opposed marriage equality.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said: “It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.”
At an event in Sydney on Thursday, Dutton was asked what message Chinese president, Xi Jinping, was trying to send to Australia last month when the Chinese navy conducted live-fire drills in Australian waters.
The opposition leader agreed with the event’s host, Michael Fullilove, that it was a “show of force” before launching into a tirade against Anthony Albanese.
“[Albanese’s response] was the weakest, most limp-wrist response you could see from a leader,” Dutton said.
“I think what was being tested was our response time, how we would engage, what we would say and I think the prime minister, frankly, failed every one of those tests.”
The term “limp-wrist” has been used historically as a slur against homosexual men. The Cambridge dictionary describes it as “an extremely offensive word used to describe a man whose behaviour is thought to be typical of a gay person”.
Speaking on ABC on Thursday afternoon, Wong defended Albanese’s response to China before turning to the nature of Dutton’s comments.
“We made very clear our views to the Chinese and publicly. We were very upfront about that. Defence put a number of statements out, the minister for defence and the prime minister and I all gave very public comments about it. And I raised directly with Foreign Minister Wang Yi our concerns about the lack of adequate notice,” Wong said.
“But in terms of Mr Dutton’s choice of language, what I would say is this is a bloke who opposed marriage equality, so it’s an unsurprising use of language from him.”
Independent MP Allegra Spender also criticised Dutton’s choice of words, writing on X his use of the term to characterise Albanese’s response was “completely inappropriate” and “offensive to many in the LGBTQ+ community”.
“By all means criticise the govt response, but don’t do so in a way that plays into offensive stereotypes about gay men,” Spender wrote.
A spokesperson for Just.Equal Australia, Rodney Croome, condemned the comment from the opposition leader.
Croome suggested the term limp-wrist “is widely known as a derogatory term for gay men” and that its use by Dutton may be heard as a “Trump-style dog whistle to homophobic prejudice”.
“I call on Mr Dutton to apologise for using the term and commit to an election campaign free of prejudice against LGBTIQA+ Australians,” he said.
