Politics

Bill Shorten Has Apologised For That Very Weird “Australians First” Ad

"It should never have been produced, and it should never be shown." - Anthony Albanese

by Osman Faruqi  8 May 2017

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That was quick! Less than 24 hours after Labor’s new “Australians first” ad, which featured plenty of white people and very little diversity, went to air the party’s leader, Bill Shorten, has offered up an apology.

The ad was heavily criticised for pushing a narrow, xenophobic message and failing to accurately represent the Australian community.

At a press conference this morning Shorten acknowledged the ad wasn’t diverse enough but stood by it’s message. On Twitter he went further, calling the ad a “bad oversight”.

“Fair cop.” – Bill Shorten, 2017.

According to SBS News the ad was only scheduled to air in regional QLD, an area being targeted by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party.

This morning Liberal MP Craig Laundy called Shorten “extremely xenophobic”.

“The gall of that man to explain to us that he was in an ad and had no idea of the content of that ad,” Laundy said. “In western Sydney we have a simple phrase: We call bullshit.”

Labor MP Anthony Albanese also got fired up about the ad, labelling it “a shocker”.

“[It] should never have been produced, and it should never be shown,” Albanese said.  “It is not the sort of ad I want my party to be promoting.”

Greens senators Sarah Hanson-Young and Nick McKim also criticised the ad:

That led Labor MP David Feeney to tweet this:

Which, to be honest, is an absolutely shameless rip-off of this great tweet:

But seriously David Feeney, sit down. You aren’t helping your case. You are literally the most beige and bland dude in parliament, shhh.