The Labor party has issued an apology after they posted a meme over the weekend that repurposed an image with racist language.
The political party’s language accompanying the post has also been accused of ‘dog whistling’ to people who support far-right political views.
The post on the party’s social media channels featured a man wearing a t-shirt that read “This is Australia. We eat meat. We drink beer and we love Medicare.”
The t-shirt featured in the post is similar to an archival example f nationalist racist material held by Museums Victoria. The version in the museum’s collection is navy blue.
“The T-shirts reflect anxieties about foreign invasions and a xenophobia that has characterised public discourse in Australian colonies since the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s,” the museum says alongside their version of the shirt that was on sale in 2009.
The message from the Labor party also put out a call to “Aussie Patriots”, and phrase that many online followers thought was a call out to right-wing groups.
The message was deleted after a wave of followers asked if the party’s social media accounts had been hacked?
On Monday a party spokesperson said they’d “missed the mark” with the post.
“Labor is seeking to reach everyone with our message that Australians value Medicare and we’ll do everything we can to protect it from Peter Dutton’s cuts. However, the party acknowledges this post missed the mark and it has been deleted.” the spokesperson said.
