Magda Szubanski defends Jenny Morrison photo tweet

Under fire comedian Magda Szubanski says she wasn’t attacking the appearance of the PM’s wife and she didn’t initially even know it was her.

A Current Affair's Tracy Grimshaw and Magda Szubanski.

Magda Szubanski has defended a tweet about Jenny Morrison, saying she was not attacking the appearance of the Prime Minister’s wife and she did not know it was her.

In an interview with A Current Affair on Wednesday night, Szubanski addressed the controversy of recent days following her retweet of a photo of Scott Morrison signing condolences to the royals following the death of Prince Phillip as his wife stood beside him.

Szubanski was criticised for her tweet, which said: “I genuinely thought this was a photoshopped Handmaid’s Tale meme. But no, it’s 21st-century Aussie life.”

Magda Szubanski’s tweet

The comedian said she was not criticising Ms Morrison and maintained she was not on Twitter “just to make nice comments”.

“I just thought it was a strange PR or photograph, and all I’m suggesting with that comment is Scott Morrison is the master of spin,” she told A Current Affair.

“Why would you put something that looks like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ out as a photo op?

“When I first looked at it did not realise that it was Jenny Morrison because it looks very different from her, she’s normally got her hair done, makeup, the whole sort of thing.

“I genuinely thought it was a meme, so I was a bit staggered that I got drawn into this over such a nothing observation that thousands of people had already made.

“I was actually coming off the back of other people commenting and it took me a while to twig that it was her. There is no suggestion of me having a crack at her appearance.”

On the same day, Szubanski tweeted another photo of Ms Morrison and appeared to be criticising the way she was holding her hand in a photo with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their Australian tour.

What’s this little hand signal thingy?? https://t.co/PkSLOxjLef

— Magda Szubanski AO (@MagdaSzubanski) April 11, 2021

Szubanski rejected suggestions a prime minister’s wife should be “off limits” to criticism.

“Scott Morrison is the one who has brought her into public life, and as we know once you‘re in public life, we all cop it, that is what happens.”

Szubanski said given how often Mr Morrison brought up his wife when speaking to the public, it was only fair for Australians to know more about her.

“If she’s going to have some sort of influence in public life I want to know, what are her values? What kind of a woman is she?”

“Look, I don’t want to hurt her (Mrs Morrison), of course I don’t. I do think that if she’s going to be in public life, we need to know more about her.

Magda: "If (Jenny Morrison) is going to have some sort of influence in public life, I want to know: What are her values? What kind of a woman is she?"
Full interview tonight on A Current Affair from 7.00. #9ACApic.twitter.com/oxqFJitIkj

— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) April 14, 2021

A slew of female politicians have criticised Szubanski in recent days for her perceived “attack” on the Prime Minister’s wife.

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint called her statement “appalling”, and that it was another example of double standards given to women on the centre right.

Yet another deeply nasty attack on Mrs Morrison, this time encouraged & enabled by the publicly-funded ABC. Enough is enough; all women deserve respect, especially from the ABC! @ItaButtrose@stoker_aj@RitaPanahi@jkalbrechtsen@GemmaTognini@CaroDiRusso@GrayConnollyhttps://t.co/nYzDPUdPn4

— Nicolle Flint MP (@NicolleFlint) April 14, 2021

Normal people see a benign picture of the PM & his wife signing a condolence book for Prince Philip.

Twitter Lefties see chilling, terrifying, ominous misogyny, literally handmaid’s tale, sickening & depressing sexism blah blah blah pic.twitter.com/4twUjbPmaW

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) April 13, 2021

Szubanski also admitted that her tweet was a “mild way” of drawing attention to her concerns about far-right, extreme sections of Christianity in Australia.

“Trust me this is not about the majority of Christians, but the element of the far right, and they are really going to come from me now, I think that is a concern,” she said.

“I think that is a quite legitimate thing to say in this country. I don’t like extremes of any kind, is my stance.

“I am extremely restrained about what I say on Twitter, but there are some opinions that I will voice. In terms of the increasing presence of the religious right in politics in this country, then I will say something.’’

Szubanski recently backed Australian of the Year Grace Tame’s criticism of Senator Amanda Stoker’s cabinet appointment.

“This reshuffle has handed power to Amanda Stoker, another of the small but noisy ‘Christian Soldiers’ faction hijacking the national agenda,” Szubanski wrote on Twitter.

Grace Tame, I salute you & your courage. This reshuffle has handed power to Amanda Stoker, another of the small but noisy “Christian Soldiers” faction hijacking the national agenda. All because a few guys can’t keep their dick in their pants. And worse 😠 https://t.co/YR63O2QnFs

— Magda Szubanski AO (@MagdaSzubanski) April 3, 2021