Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has voiced his opinion on former Australian of the Year Grace Tame wearing a “F**k Murdoch” t-shirt to an event for recipients of the 2025 awards at The Lodge on Saturday.
Using the morning tea with the Prime Minister to voice an opinion of her own – one that happens to be shared by many people the world over – the 2021 winner took aim at the billionaire media mogul.
Tame was photographed being welcomed by Albanese and his financée, Jodie Haydon, as they greeted guests at the door, conjuring up fond memories of a previous Australian of the Year event – albeit a little less smiley one.
Taking to her personal Instagram after the event, Tame shared a carousel of the picture – and item of clothing – making headlines, alongside the caption that read: “Not here to fuck spiders, just Murdoch (not literally, *ew) and the rest of the morbidly, dynastically wealthy white supremacist corporate oligarchs ruining our planet; funding genocide, war, general destruction; and creating/fuelling division worldwide just to maintain their own power and control!!!”

In a follow-up interview with The Guardian, the activist expanded on the sentiment, sharing that “[The T-shirt is] clearly not just about Murdoch, it’s the obscene greed, inhumanity and disconnection that he symbolises, which are destroying our planet.”
“If we want to dismantle this corrupt system, if we want legitimate climate action, equity, truth, justice, democracy, peace, land back, etc, then resisting forces like Murdoch is a good starting point,” Tame added.
In 2022, a photograph with then-prime minister Scott Morrison went viral for depicting a sombre Tame refusing to (shockingly) force a smile for a man she’d been vocally critical of – and rightfully so. At the time, a division of opinion felt evenly split across the emotive spectrum. Half applauded Tame’s refusal to offer up meaningless platitudes to a man unworthy of her praise, while others filled the comment sections with calls for her to make nice, labelling her – the guest of honour – childish and ungracious for refusing to placate a leader who, repeatedly, failed to do exactly that when it came to women’s safety.
Responding to questions from ABC Radio Perth about Tame’s seemingly controversial attire at this year’s event, Albanese said: “I held a function. It is something that, in my view, took away from the people who were there, and my focus was simply on that.”
When pressed for further comment at a subsequent media conference, the prime minister added: “There was a queue of more than – how many people were in the queue? Around at least 60. There was all of the Australia Day nominees. There was all of the past Australians of the Year. There was the Australia Day Council. People were just there, one by one, rolling through, being welcomed. And [Tame’s shirt] was clearly designed to get attention. I don’t intend to add to that attention because I do think that it takes away from what the day should be about, which is the amazing people who were nominated as Australians of the Year.”
After failing to escape the bombardment of follow-up questions relating to his own views on Tame’s clearly-expressed sentiment, he was careful to distance himself from shirt’s messaging, stating: “I clearly disagree. I want debate to be respectful … and that’s a choice that she made. People are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for,” he continued.
But seeing as the event wasn’t for Murdoch (as far as we’re aware) it’s unclear who exactly Grace Tame was allegedly offending with her choice of outfit.
The sartorial statement comes amid the Murdoch-owned News Group Newspapers landmark settlement with Prince Harry, in which the publisher was forced to apologise for “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World. The outcome marks the first time The Sun has admitted to unlawful activities.
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