Grace Tame has said “we all know what you meant” after Anthony Albanese claimed he meant to describe her “difficult life” when he labelled her “difficult”.
Speaking in Melbourne on Thursday morning, the prime minister said he had not meant to describe Tame as “difficult” at a News Corp event on Wednesday, when he was asked to describe public figures in one word. Instead he meant that her life had been “difficult”, he said.
But Tame, an outspoken advocate for sexual abuse survivors and the 2021 Australian of the Year, hit back on Thursday afternoon, suggesting Albanese was “quoting” the former prime minister Scott Morrison.
“Dude’s quoting Scott now!!! ‘She’s had a difficult life’… Spare me the condescension, old man,” she commented on a social media post by independent media company Ette about Albanese’s remarks.
“We all know what you meant. A badge of honour anyway. A confession that I’ve ruffled him.”
Tame had earlier reshared a social media post to her Instagram story, saying: “‘Difficult’ is the misogynist’s code for a woman who won’t comply. History tends to call her ‘courageous’.”
Another post she shared said: “[Tame] is so difficult, she is more powerful than the opposition.”
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On Thursday, Albanese said: “I was asked to describe people in one word and Grace Tame you certainly can’t describe in one word.
“She has had a difficult life, and that was what I was referring to.
“If there was any misinterpretation, then I certainly apologise. I think that Grace Tame has taken what is personal trauma and that awful experience that she had and channelled that into helping, in particular, other young women, being a strong and powerful advocate, being quite courageous in the way that she has gone out there.”
He added that he did not agree with comments Tame made at protests against the visit of the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in early February.
Tame was filmed leading a chat “from Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada” at one of the rallies. Critics, including the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, have demanded that the prime minister condemn Tame for her comments while others argued she should be stripped of her Australian of the Year award.
“Now there are other issues, such as the language that Grace Tame used, that I disagree with, at the demonstration that was held in Sydney,” Albanese said.
“So that’s why it’s impossible to describe people in one word, and that wasn’t meant to be taken that way, it was certainly just a word that comes to mind when different people are mentioned.”
The comment has drawn criticism from the Greens leader, Larissa Waters, who said the prime minister’s description was “completely unwarranted”.
“Labelling women as difficult won’t silence us,” she wrote on X. “It won’t stop us speaking truth to power. Next time try ‘unbreakable’ or ‘warrior’ or ‘fierce’, prime minister.”
Waters’ upper house colleague Sarah Hanson-Young thanked all the “difficult women” for the right to vote, to run for parliament, to open a bank account and to buy a house.
Hannah Ferguson, an online media commentator, was particularly critical in a video posted to Instagram, describing Albanese as a “bootlicker”, “piss-weak” and a “user”.
“Put simply, Anthony Albanese has departed from any principles he once claimed to have as he follows Pauline [Hanson] down the road to the right,” she said. “That’s all that’s happening right now, a calculated pivot as he sees her number surge.
“What Albo and whoever’s advising him forget is that Australians care most about someone having principles and standing by them – we can smell a disingenuous person from a mile away.”
Guardian Australia has contacted Tame for a response.
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