Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the jokes were “utterly unacceptable”.
Australian politician and former professional tennis player John Alexander has “apologised unreservedly” for making jokes involving rape, violence against women and Irish people over 20 years ago.
Footage recently surfaced of Alexander making the jokes in Brisbane in 1995, during which time he starred as a referee in the Australian version of the TV show, Gladiators.
A recording of Alexander on the night in question shows him telling two jokes, one of which features him donning an Irish accent in a joke about an Irishman pretending to confess to a priest about an affair with a local woman in order to obtain the names of “three certainties for Saturday night”.
The second joke involved “a black guy in Chicago” who had “witnessed a rape and he’s been called into court”.
Alexander, who is seeking to regain his seat in a by-election in the district of Bennelong in Sydney next month, having resigned from federal parliament earlier this month over a citizenship issue, has faced criticism since footage of him making the jokes surfaced on Buzzfeed News this week.
Alexander subsequently issued a statement of apology, saying: “More than twenty years ago I told crude and inappropriate jokes, which were completely unacceptable and I apologise unreservedly.
“There is no place for jokes about violence against women. Again, I apologise unreservedly.”
Commenting on the matter, meanwhile, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said at a press conference on Thursday: “John Alexander has made, as he should have done, an unreserved apology for that.
“Statements like that, whether they’re intended as jokes or not, are completely and… utterly unacceptable.
“Not all disrespect of women ends up in violence against women, but that’s where all violence against women begins, so all of us need to reflect on that.
“John has done so, on some ill-judged remarks 20 years ago, and it is a measure of the man and of the dignity of the man that he has acknowledged that those remarks were unacceptable, and he’s unreservedly apologised for them.”
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