Radio presenter Ray Hadley and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton have been accused of “sexist claptrap” after making offensive comments about Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on 2GB radio.
2GB presenter Hadley invited Dutton on to his show, during which the pair played an offensive song about the Greens Senator and then discussed their dislike of her.
“Sarah Hanson-Young is just the worst ever. She makes Bob Brown look kinda clever,” the song’s chorus says, set to the tune of Youth Group’s Forever Young.
“Talk about a half-wit. Sarah Hanson-Young, I don’t want to hear Sarah Hanson-Young. I’m sure she’ll be quite mad forever, forever, not clever,” the song continues.
“Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, every time she opens up her mouth,” the song says, before calling Young “the dumbest politician in Australia”.
Dutton – who last week described Young as “an embarrassment to the country” – laughed audibly on air as the song finished. The pair then launched into a discussion of their personal feelings.
“It’s beyond my comprehension that, that she has any credibility in any major issue pertaining to our country,” Hadley said. Dutton agreed.
Dutton called her “wacky”, to which Hadley responded by clarifying that she is a “wacky embarrassment to the country”.
Dutton also said Young has a “track record of making things up”.
Young has garnered significant attention in the press lately. This week it was confirmed she was in fact followed and watched by staff at a detention centre on Nauru in late 2013. The Abbott government – under which the surveillance took place – this week confirmed the operation was unauthorised.
Also this week, Young won a three-year long court battle against Zoo Magazine, whom she sued for defamation after publishing an image of her head superimposed onto a lingerie model’s body.
Young responded to Hadley and Dutton’s comments defiantly, saying the minister was attempting to intimidate her.
“It would be helpful if the minister spent more time cleaning up the child abuse inside his detention centres than trying to intimidate those who scrutinise the government’s policies,” she said.
Acting Greens leader Senator Larissa Waters described the pair’s comments as “sexist claptrap”.
“This is sexist claptrap that has absolutely no basis.”
“Unfortunately this sort of pathetic treatment of a young woman doing her job exceedingly well in the Parliament just demonstrates what a problem with sexism we still have in the Parliament andsadly in the nation more broadly,” she said.
“The old white men in the media still don’t understand that young women have a place in the Parliament. This sort of nonsense will only serve to strengthen the resolve of young women to break down those barriers.”
Waters also has a message for Hadley and his listeners: “Any thinking person should reconsider listening to Ray Hadley’s show,” she said.