Dutton says he shouldn’t have called Albanese ‘limp-wristed’

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has expressed regret for using the term “limp-wristed” to describe Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response to the Chinese navy’s recent circumnavigation of Australia after his comments drew a pointed reply from Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

The opposition leader used an appearance at the Lowy Institute think tank to say he would travel to the US to urge US President Donald Trump to restore cancelled foreign aid funding to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to limit China’s influence.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during an event at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday.Credit: Bloomberg

Dutton said last month’s visit by a Chinese naval task group was a “show of force by Beijing”, adding: “Now they’re not words that the prime minister used at all. It was the weakest, most limp-wristed response you can see from a leader.”

He continued: “I don’t believe that [Chinese] President Xi, with the strength of his leadership, respects a weak and incompetent Australian prime minister.”

Alluding to the term’s common use as a slur against gay men, Wong told the ABC: “This is a bloke who opposed marriage equality, so it’s an unsurprising use of language from him.”

Independent MP Allegra Spender accused Dutton of promoting “offensive stereotypes about gay men” in a social media post, describing his language as “completely inappropriate & offensive to many in the LGBTQ+ community”.

Asked to respond to the criticism, a spokesperson for Dutton said: “It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.”

In his speech, Dutton pledged he would seek to meet with Trump at the White House in his first overseas trip as prime minister if the Coalition won the May election as he vowed to forcefully stand up to the US president when necessary.

Dutton’s speech was interrupted by heckling from two anti-nuclear activists, who were quickly ejected from the event.

In his most detailed speech on foreign policy since becoming opposition leader, Dutton also vowed to quickly restore Australia’s pro-Israel voting record at the United Nations and repair ties with the Netanyahu government.

He said he would also cut off all funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, one of the main providers of aid in Gaza and the West Bank.

Dutton’s bid to make Washington DC his first overseas destination as prime minister represents a significant break from the past three decades of Australian politics, when newly elected prime ministers have ritually made capitals in the Asia-Pacific their first port of call.

Paul Keating, John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison all made Indonesia their first overseas trips as PM, while Albanese visited Jakarta after a Quad leaders meeting in Tokyo.

Kevin Rudd travelled to the UN climate conference in Bali, followed by Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, while Julia Gillard visited Australian troops in Afghanistan. Malcolm Turnbull travelled to New Zealand in his first overseas visit as prime minister.

Anthony Albanese on his first official visit overseas as prime minister in June 2022 with then-president of Indonesia Joko Widodo in Jakarta. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Asked where he would travel first as prime minister, Dutton said that the US is Australia’s “most important military partner, and there is a lot of repair work to do in that relationship”.

While relationships with Indonesia, Japan and China are also important, Dutton said that establishing a personal connection with Trump would be his most important foreign policy priority.

Indicating that Rudd’s days as Australian ambassador in Washington could be numbered under a Coalition government, Dutton said the former prime minister seems to be “persona non grata” with the Trump administration.

Dutton said he would seek to work with Trump in a “respectful” way but that he would not avoid criticising the president when required.

“President Trump’s been elected to put America first,” he said.

“My job is to put Australia first, and I will stand up firmly against President Trump or anyone else in our country’s best interests.”

Dutton said he would call for Trump to restore funding to important US aid projects in the Pacific and South-East Asia that have been cut by his administration under an effort led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“I don’t agree with some of the funding that has been withdrawn, and I think it is detrimental to the collective interests in the region and I hope there can be a discussion between our governments about a sensible way forward,” he said.

Responding to a report in this masthead that American pharma giants have called on the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Australia because of its subsidised medicines, Dutton said “I want the Australian people to know that I will stand up and defend the PBS, which is the envy of the world, against any attempt to undermine its integrity, including by major pharmaceutical companies,” he said.

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