NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has admitted he once dressed up as a Nazi for his 21st birthday during a press conference on Thursday morning.
“This was a terrible and grave mistake that I made when I was 21 and that’s not me. That’s not the person I am,” he said.
“At that age in my life I just did not understand the gravity and the hurt of what that uniform means to people, not just in our state … but around the world.”
Given the fact that Perrottet is only 40, his 21st birthday would have been in 2004. I’m pretty sure folks knew Nazis were bad then.
Regardless of the time this took place, he should have absolutely known better than to trivialise and mock something so serious for a costume party.
“I’m deeply ashamed of what I did and I’m truly sorry for the hurt and the pain this will cause for people right across our state,” he continued.
“In particular, members of the Jewish community, Holocaust survivors, veterans and their families.
“I am truly sorry… I am not the person I was when I was 21.”
“It’s been something that’s personally anguished me, and I have thought at various parts of my life journey, that I needed to raise it.”
Dominic Perrottet reportedly called the press conference after a colleague addressed him about rumours of the costume. Per The Daily Telegraph, images of the costume were “set to be leaked” by an anonymous source.
“When it was raised with me the other day, two days ago, that I needed this truth about this terrible mistake that I made … [it] needed to be told by me, not by someone else.”
It’s been a big day for state press conferences. Earlier today Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews revealed there will be no state funeral for Cardinal George Pell (thank the lord).
“I think that would be a deeply, deeply distressing thing for every survivor of Catholic Church child sex abuse,” he said.
“We should never forget that predator brothers and priests were systematically moved around, knowingly, as part of a strategy.
“We will never ever forget victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.”
I guess it’s Annastacia Palaszczuk‘s turn to call a wild press conference??
