Well, Labor‘s new ad which encourages businesses to “hire Australians first” while Bill Shorten stands in front of a contingent of overwhelmingly white workers has been copping a pizzling this morning.
It seemed like such an own goal, too. If they really wanted to push an economic nationalist message, it wouldn’t have taken much to throw a bone to diversity in the video. Not that it would have made an ad targeting foreign workers any less troubling, but c’mon guys.
— so-called bog dad (@AynRandy) May 7, 2017
I almost GUARANTEE you there will be a fuller apology and statement on this in the next 24 hours. That’s basically a given. But for now, Shorten has given a half-hearted backtrack to a throng of journalists in Canberra. He stuck by the main message of the ad, but confirmed that the lack of diversity was troubling.
It is rubbish. I am not in the ad making business. I make no apology for saying that there has been 130,000 apprenticeships cut under the Liberals and we have had too many rorts in our 457 visa system. But I certainly think we need to encourage as much diversity as we can, I’ve had a look at the final production and I think we should have had more diversity in it and I’ll be speaking to the Labor Party about that.
Of course, it’s weird that he is only realising that there is a lack of diversity after being thoroughly roasted for it, given that he is literally in the ad and stood in front of these people. He may not be in the business or making ads, but he is certainly in the business of being in them.
A later tweet was perhaps a little more measured, but still doesn’t back down from the core message of the ad.
Some people have pointed out the lack of diversity in the ALP’s video about local jobs. Fair cop. A bad oversight that won’t happen again.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) May 8, 2017
Ah well. Politics is hell. Like I said – absolutely hang tight for a real apology, because it is no doubt coming.
Source: Twitter.
Photo: 9 News.
