Anthony Albanese has once again failed to stand up for trans people, as he cosies up to right-wing royalty
It was curious timing for Labor to be accusing the Coalition of flirting with the “far-right fringe”. For it was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who decided to make his first stop in the UK an interview with Sky News provocateur Piers Morgan, talking everything from “cancel culture” to “gender”. Coming off the back of a week in which Albanese attended Kyle Sandilands’ ostentatious wedding, and chose to throw millions at an unwanted AFL stadium while walking away from protesters calling for housing reform, it left many wondering who on earth was advising the PM, and why they hate him so much. “So tell me, you’re tough on borders, you’re anti cancel culture, you know what a woman is … You’re not a secret Tory in disguise, are you?” Morgan asked Albanese in their exclusive sit-down. Indeed, some are wondering what happened to Tory-fighting Albo, the scrappy left-wing firebrand who grew up in public housing and was a firm believer in a republic. Or, as the satirists at The Shovel put it: “Labor Party insiders are expressing concern that Scott Morrison may have sworn himself in as Anthony Albanese without anyone noticing.”
What is Albanese doing? While there was some political justification for him going to Sandilands’ wedding (as commentators point out, the toxic shock jock has one of the largest politically unengaged audiences in the country), there seemed little reason for Albanese to go and self-flagellate before Morgan, a UK-based pundit, a “bully and a thug”, who now has a tiny audience after being kicked off mainstream TV due to his commentary. (There was some irony in the fact that the Piers Morgan Uncensored clips were not available to Australian Twitter users, although the full interview will be available tonight through Sky Australia.) Nine correspondent Rob Harris dismissed those who would be offended by the interview as “those who drink Albo Pale Ales with pride in Sydney’s inner west”. (Never mind that those are supposed to be Albanese’s core voters.) “Whether strategic or not, the prime minister is sending a message to his political opponents on the right that he is not conceding one inch of the centre ground and that he is determined to woo middle Australia,” Harris wrote, insisting the PM knew what he was doing. But does anyone really think News Corp is about to turn around and go easy on Albanese and his agenda just because he’s willing to go on Piers Morgan Uncensored and throw trans women under the bus? And even if it is, would it be worth it for Albanese?
That, after all, was what the PM did, once again fumbling the question he must have known was coming: “What is a woman?” It is a hateful question that has become popular among right-wing culture warriors, designed to elicit an answer that rules out trans women. Albanese had already entertained it during the election campaign. “An adult female,” the PM replied again, before stuttering his way through an answer in which he suggested “that, um, we need to, I think, I respect people for whoever they are, and it’s up to people to, uh, you know, to be respected”. A powerful condemnation of transphobia it was not. Trans rights activists are rightfully furious at his response, with transfeminine writer Eleanor Evans tweeting that Albanese had used “anti-trans dog whistles while umming and ahhing about ‘respect’”. (The “adult human female” tag is one that has been adopted by anti-trans figures such as Posie Parker.) “Albo is not on our side, y’all,” Evans added, noting he couldn’t even bring himself to say the word “trans”.
He did, however, win the approval of anti-trans app founder Sall Grover, who tweeted that Albanese’s definition – “adult female” – was correct. It’s no wonder figures such as Moira Deeming carry on unabashed, with the suspended Liberal MP using her first Question Time since joining the crossbench to ask the corrections minister how many “biologically male prisoners” there are in women’s prisons.
This is not the first time Albanese has offered a weak response on trans issues, in order to “woo middle Australia”. (Although it’s not clear whether middle Australia cares about this at all.) His response during March’s anti-trans rallies (attended by neo-Nazis) was hugely disappointing, with the PM again talking about “respect”, and offering no clear condemnation of the hate-filled events. During the election, he was keen to make it clear to News Corp that he was “NOT WOKE”, even if it meant throwing trans people under the bus. And it’s a strategy he has continued in government, taking cowardly, centrist positions on several culture-war issues. “Who is this for?” tweeted Greens MP Stephen Bates of the latest Morgan interview. “Genuine question.” As others have noted, there is absolutely no reason to “dogwhistle to transphobes who have never voted and will never vote for him”. And yet he continues to seek their approval, letting down his base, but, more importantly, letting down the most vulnerable minorities who might have reasonably expected a popular left-wing prime minister to stand up for them.
As Albanese started to reply when he was asked by Morgan if he was a secret Tory, “I’m an absolutely consistent…”. He was cut off before he could complete his answer, with the host asking if he was perhaps instead, “an old-fashioned liberal of my kind … who actually realises the woke left is pretty nutty and that way madness lies”. Once again, Albanese did not correct him, instead stating that he was a “Social Democrat” with a philosophy of “no one held back and no one left behind”. Of course, people are increasingly being left behind by this prime minister, a man who seems far more interested in the approval of Piers Morgan and middle Australia than the feelings of trans people, poor people, young people and those who drink the craft beer with his face on it.
Source: The Monthly
