Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been criticised for using a phrase seen by many as a historical slur against gay men.
Dutton was speaking at a foreign policy event at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday when he was asked for his view on Chinese naval ships conducting live-fire drills off Australia’s coast in February.
The opposition leader described the actions as a “show of force” by China before giving his view of how he thought Prime Minister Anthony Albanese handled the drills.
“It was the weakest, most limp-wrist response you could see from a leader,” Dutton told the audience.
Limp-wristed is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “an extremely offensive word used to describe a man whose behaviour is thought to be typical of a gay person”.
Its first usage was actually in a Swiss gay magazine, Des Kreis, that wrote: “It’s because of these obvious, limp-wristed types who congregate at bars to scream at one another that the rest of us are finding social acceptance so difficult.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC that Dutton’s choice of words did not surprise her.
“People can draw their own conclusions about the term he used,” she said.
Independent MP Allegra Spender, who represents Wentworth in Sydney’s east, criticised Dutton, saying his usage of the phrase was “completely inappropriate” and “offensive to many in the LGBTQ+ community”.
Equality advocacy group Just.Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome also condemned the phrase, telling The Guardian that its use by Dutton may be heard as a “Trump-style dog whistle to homophobic prejudice”.
Responding to the criticism, Dutton’s office told SBS “it was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton”.
Gay Sydney News reporter