She’s not one to hold her tongue, but outspoken activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s latest outburst is likely to ring true with many Aussies as she took aim at the country’s top pollies over the recent leadership spill which saw Malcolm Turnbull replaced by Scott Morrison.
Joining the panel on Channel Ten’s The Project on Tuesday night, the Muslim author slammed Australian politicians, labelling the whole situation as “embarrassing”.
“Lols, lols. Like honestly, they are taking the piss,” she told host Peter Van Onselen, after he asked what her feelings are about the dramatic turn of events in Canberra over the past week.
She added: “Like genuinely, it’s like the Australian politicians are playing some sort of game in their own world and not really taking seriously the fact that they are running a country, and it’s honestly offensive.”
Not holding back, Abdel-Magied went on to slam the “white men” in charge, mentioning issues such as women’s rights and racism.
“Also, if anyone ever says to me that like women can’t do something or like people of colour aren’t able to do something, I’ll be like right is this the best you white men have,” the Sudanese-Australian said.
“Don’t come at me with chat about merit or quotas because it’s a pretty low bar.”
Read more: ‘Go back where you came from’: Yassmin Abdel-Magied on ‘humiliating’ customs
Abdel-Magied is well known for speaking her mind and her recent outburst comes just weeks after she admitted she feels “humiliated” every time she goes through customs, following the controversy surrounding her alleged “deportation” from the United States.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Abdel-Magied described herself as a “proud Aussie” but slammed security and immigration staff at European airports, who she claims judge her purely based on her Muslim faith and Sudanese heritage.
“I’m an Australian and have been so for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I’ve always considered myself ‘Aussie’, and proudly so — with the obvious caveats around our treatment of First Nations people, asylum-seekers, performance at the World Cup, etc.
“But no matter how Aussie I feel, how broad my ocker accent, or how blasé I am around poisonous creatures, customs lines at airports see me a little differently. There I’m less ‘Aussie’, more ‘Muslim’. Less ‘larrikan’, more ‘African’. Less ‘life of the party’, more ‘danger to national security’.”