Australian Prime Minister’s Joy Division T-Shirt Sparks Major Political Controversy

The biggest story in Australian politics this week has involved the Prime Minister wearing a Joy Division T-shirt. On Oct. 23, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of the center-left Labor Party, was filmed and photographed exiting his plane wearing a tee with the cover art from 1979’s Unknown Pleasures rather than the customary suit and tie. Five days later, Sussan Ley, leader of the conservative Liberal Party (confusing!) criticized Albanese for wearing the shirt in a speech before parliament. Describing Albanese’s sartorial choice as a “profound failure of judgment,” Ley attempted to frame Joy Division as antisemitic because the band is named after “a wing of a Nazi concentration camp where Jewish women were forced into sexual slavery.”

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