Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arriving back in Australia wearing a Joy Division band t-shirt. Image: Screenshot.
There was some joy amid all the division for the Coalition on Tuesday (28 October) when Sussan Ley decided to focus on the big issues and criticise Anthony Albanese’s choice of t-shirt to wear when getting off a plane last week.
Shortly before parliament’s Question Time, the Opposition Leader rose to make a statement and call on the Prime Minister to apologise for wearing a t-shirt depicting British post-punk band Joy Division’s 1979 album cover Unknown Pleasures.
Ms Ley described it as a “profound failure of judgement” for the PM to wear the shirt because the band was named after a sex slave ring forced on Jewish women in a Nazi concentration camp.
Mr Albanese disembarked the plane last Thursday after returning from Washington, DC, wearing the t-shirt rather than a suit and tie.
Five days later, while the Coalition continues with its destructive internal division over its environment and energy policy, Ms Ley was determined to make a point over the choice of shirt.
“Arriving back in Australia from his overseas trip, the Prime Minister stepped off the plane proudly wearing a t-shirt with the name of a band, Joy Division, whose origins are steeped in antisemitism,” she said.
“The name was taken from the wing of a Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women were forced into sexual slavery.
“At a time when Jewish Australians are facing a rise in antisemitism, when families are asking for reassurance and unity, the Prime Minister chose to parade an image derived from hatred and suffering.
“This is not a slip of judgment, and he cannot claim ignorance. He was told about the dark origins of this band on a podcast in 2022. He even admitted that it is very dark. He knew, he understood, and still he wore the t-shirt.
“It raises questions about values, the wrong values, and it is a profound failure of judgement for the Prime Minister of this country in full knowledge of the meaning behind the name of this band.
“To choose to wear this t-shirt is an insult to all, and it fails the basic tests of leadership. He should apologise immediately.”
The speech was quickly typed out in the Opposition Leader’s office and distributed to the Press Gallery for further distribution.
The Joy Division t-shirt in question (not the actual one worn by the PM), but available at stores like JB HiFi. Photo: JB HiFi.
The 2022 podcast Ms Ley referred to reveals Mr Albanese, who likes wearing band t-shirts, was surprised to learn the origins of Joy Division’s name, saying he didn’t know that when it was put to him.
“But everything about the band is so dark,” he said at the time.
The band’s choice of name was controversial from the outset in the late 1970s, but members answered criticism by saying people should judge them by their music.
Unknown Pleasures is regarded as a seminal album of the post-punk era and its cover artwork was recently rated by Rolling Stone magazine as the best cover of all time.
The band had a massive worldwide hit in 1980 with the non-album single Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Following the 1980 suicide of frontman Ian Curtis, remaining band members continued under the name of New Order – a term which also has links to Nazi Germany. However, the band denied ever knowing that at the time.
While Ms Ley found some support from within her own ranks for her parliamentary statement on Tuesday, others were somewhat baffled at the move.
Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, agreed with the Opposition Leader.
“This is a serious error of judgment from the PM,” he said.
“It sends a terrible signal and he should apologise.”
Fellow Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie, speaking on an ABC television panel later in the day, seemed a little more bemused by it all.
While she described it as poor taste for the PM to wear the shirt, she was more concerned about the PM’s attempts to appear cool.
“I say the crime is wearing band t-shirts when you’re a man of a certain age,” Ms McKenzie said.
“He could have picked a better one.”
Notably, none of the Jewish community organisations in Australia have bought into the issue, offering no comments at all.
The Prime Minister, in Malaysia for international summits, took to social media during the kerfuffle back home to simply post “getting things done”.
