Ex-premier Jeff Kennett sorry after berating woman at Young Libs ball

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has issued an apology after he lashed out at a woman during the Young Liberals gala ball, prompting calls for him to be kicked out of the event.

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett has issued an apology after calling a woman a “rude little bitch” while giving a keynote address at a gala for Young Liberals on Saturday.

Mr Kennett claimed he was being interrupted by the woman during his speech, at which point he lashed out with a “totally unacceptable” comment.

The former premier referred to the woman as “Gabrielle” when explaining the context in which he made the comments to Nine newspapers. “I was giving my speech, Gabrielle was sitting at the table immediately in front of me and speaking continually, and I could hear her and it was distracting.”

When contacted by the Herald Sun, Mr Kennett apologised for his remarks but went on to say it was born out of frustration at continual interruptions to his speech. “I apologise profusely,” he said. “I’m not going to try and make excuses but you can understand it was in response to something that happened and I was very disappointed (with the interruption).”

Jeff Kennett speaking at the Global Food Forum in Brisbane. Picture: Glenn Hunt/The Australian

Mr Kennett said the woman had been talking to someone on her table in front of him and he had asked several times for the “very distracting” conversation to stop.

“Her comments were not at me, it was a discussion she was having at the table, which was right in front of where I was speaking,” he said. “It was a great distraction and I had asked her or mentioned (it) several times and she’d ignored it. And unfortunately I made that comment, which was inappropriate but as you can understand, I was very disappointed.

“It was very distracting.”

He said attempts were made to contact the woman and offer a personal apology but they were unsuccessful. “If I could have pushed the word back into my mouth, I probably would have done it,” he said. “But once you say these things, you’ve got to either accept them or apologise. I know my comment offended a lot of people – not all, but a lot – and so I have been trying to contact her since last night.”

Victoria’s Liberal leader John Pesutto said Mr Kennett’s comments were “totally unacceptable” but it was important to note he had apologised. “Clearly it was unacceptable and it’s appropriate that he has apologised,” he said.

Asked whether he wanted to offer a forthright condemnation of the remarks, Mr Pesutto

said: “Well, I think the comments were totally unacceptable and I think it’s important to acknowledge that Jeff has made that profuse apology.”

Following the speech, Young Liberals president Dean Dell’Orso quickly took to the microphone and apologised, while other members tried to have Mr Kennett kicked out of the event.

“With all due respect to Mr Kennett, I want to deeply apologise to my friend on the front table,” Mr Dell’Orso said. “I’m against political correctness but we want to change the culture in the Liberal Party.”