Anatomy of an insult: How the PM’s Tourette sledge, apology unfolded

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised for making “unkind and hurtful” comments in parliament on Tuesday, when he mocked opposition frontbenchers by asking if they had Tourette syndrome.

Disability advocates said Albanese had set the wrong example by using the disorder as a punchline and Greens senator Jordon Steele-John said it indicated there was a long way to go before the parliament was truly inclusive.

Albanese’s remark came in an exchange during question time, which is broadcast nationwide, when Coalition MPs interjected in the chamber as Albanese was being asked about tax changes.

“This nonsense that they carry on with ... Have you got Tourette’s or something?” Albanese asked shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, using the neurological disorder as an insult. “You know, you just sit there, babble, babble, babble,” he said.

Tourette syndrome is a disorder that involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds, or tics, that can’t be easily controlled.

Footage of the encounter shows how, after the prime minister issued the sledge, his deputy Richard Marles grimaced and struggled to control his expression while frontbencher Anne Aly swallowed her reaction and looked around awkwardly.

Albanese quickly withdrew the comment on Tuesday afternoon. “I withdraw. I withdraw. I withdraw and apologise,” he said. But he was lashed by Steele-John, the Greens’ disability rights spokesperson, and opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston, who urged him to properly apologise.

The prime minister expanded his apology in parliament on Tuesday night to a largely empty chamber. “Today, in question time, I made comments that were unkind and hurtful,” he said.

“I knew it was wrong as soon as I made the comment. I apologised and I withdrew as soon as I said it.

“But it shouldn’t have happened. And I also want to apologise to all Australians who suffer from this disability. I regret saying it. It was wrong. It was insensitive. And I apologise.”

Mandy Maysey, president of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia, who has three children with the disorder, said Albanese’s apology felt a bit hollow. “He didn’t refer to Tourette syndrome. He is happy to throw Tourette syndrome across the floor as an insult but when he made his apology, he said ‘people with this disability’,” she said on Seven’s Sunrise.

Maysey said people in public often used Tourette’s as a punchline or insult, and the prime minister doing so in parliament would set the wrong example. “Often you can’t go anywhere without people looking at you funny or even just being insulting ... It is really quite a distressing condition to have.

“Tourette syndrome affects one in 100 individuals in Australia, and then you have got the wider community, the families that suffer with it as well. It is socially isolating, and for him to just flippantly use it in such an offhanded manner speaks volumes.”

Steele-John said on Wednesday the exchange revealed the lack of understanding of the issue in political culture, which would concern people with disabilities.

“When you look to spaces like parliament that make decisions about your life, whether you get the NDIS supports you need ... and see this type of language used, it causes a lot of fear, to think that the people in here don’t get it. Because them not getting it has huge implications,” he said.

“It says to me that there is a lot of work still to do across the parliament to actually get this ableism out of this place, and replace it with a true understanding of what disability is … and what it looks like to speak and act with genuine inclusion.”

Ruston on Tuesday described it as “absolutely despicable behaviour”.

“Mocking a disability is no laughing matter,” she said. “Australians living with Tourette’s deserve the PM’s respect, not his ridicule.”

She repeated her criticism on Wednesday morning, after the prime minister’s apology, and extended her condemnation to other Labor MPs.

“One of the most disgusting things about his comment is that if you listen to the laughter of those behind him, it wasn’t just the prime minister, there were a whole heap of his colleagues who thought it was funny to mock someone with a disability,” Ruston said on 2GB.

Liberal senator Jane Hume on Wednesday morning said the comment had been an insight into Albanese’s character, but Housing Minister Clare O’Neil defended the prime minister.

“Jane, you and I both make mistakes in our work in politics. What matters is how we deal with it afterwards, and I think it was good he didn’t pretend he hadn’t done the wrong thing,” O’Neil said on Sunrise.

“He immediately acknowledged it and made that apology.”

Tuesday’s comments were the latest in a string of exchanges that have gained publicity as Albanese becomes increasingly tetchy.

He clashed with ABC radio interviewer Patricia Karvelas over the government’s tax plans last month, accusing the media of focusing on “not terribly clever questions”, and was criticised for losing his temper during Canberra’s anti-domestic violence rally in April.

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