Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologized after using an ableist slur to taunt political opponents in parliament. <\/p>\n
Albanese was speaking during question time on Tuesday when opposition lawmakers repeatedly interrupted him. <\/p>\n
\u201cHave you got Tourette\u2019s or something? You know, you just sit there, babble, babble, babble,\u201d he said, before immediately adding: \u201cI withdraw and apologize.\u201d <\/p>\n
Albanese later returned to the chamber to make a more formal apology. <\/p>\n
\u201cI made comments that were unkind and hurtful. I knew it was wrong as soon as I made the comment,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI apologized and I withdrew as soon as I said it, but it shouldn\u2019t have happened and I also want to apologize to all Australians who suffer from this disability.\u201d <\/p>\n
Albanese\u2019s apology came after strong criticism from figures including shadow minister for health and aged care Anne Ruston. <\/p>\n
Tourette\u2019s syndrome is a neurological disorder that involves tics that present themselves in various ways, described by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as \u201crepetitive, stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMocking a disability is no laughing matter,\u201d Ruston wrote in post on X, adding that the comment was \u201cabsolutely despicable behaviour\u201d from Albanese. <\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians living with Tourette\u2019s deserve the PM\u2019s respect, not his ridicule,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly disappointed and just gobsmacked somebody that has the national stage would use that platform and Tourette syndrome to make an insult,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Maysey, who has three children with Tourette\u2019s, said the disability can be socially isolating. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows we have a very long way to go until Tourette syndrome is taken seriously as a condition,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Singers Lewis Capaldi and Billie Eilish have both spoken about their experiences of living with Tourette\u2019s. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing about it is when I\u2019m excited I get it, when I\u2019m stressed I get it, when I\u2019m happy I get it. It happens all the time,\u201d Capaldi said in February 2023. <\/p>\n
A few months later, Capaldi announced that he was taking a break from touring due to the impact of Tourette\u2019s <\/p>\n
In 2022, Eilish told David Letterman that the condition can be \u201cexhausting.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologized after using an ableist slur to taunt political…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}