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 opponents in parliament. Albanese was speaking during question time on Tuesday when opposition lawmakers repeatedly interrupted him. \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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}