Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

World

Australian Prime Minister Abbott takes back his 2nd recent Nazi reference amid protest

Associated Press
Published | Updated
5a4b65a6-

FILE - In this Feb. 9,. 2015 file photo, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott answers questions at a media conference before attending the parliament's question time in Canberra. Australia's gaffe-prone prime minister took back his second Nazi-related comment in a month on Thursday, March 19 after he compared the opposition party leader to German World War II-era propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. (AP Photo/Andrew Taylor, File) (The Associated Press)

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia's gaffe-prone prime minister has taken back his second Nazi-related comment in a month, a comparison of the opposition party leader to German World War II-era propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Tony Abbott told Parliament on Thursday that Labor Party leader Bill Shorten was "the Dr. Goebbels of economic policy."

Abbott immediately said he withdrew the comment, as the opposition lawmakers yelled in protest.

Abbott last month apologized in Parliament for describing a 10 percent reduction in defense industry jobs under a former Labor government as a "holocaust of jobs."

Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Inc., referred AP to the council's longstanding policy statement that it: "Deplores the inappropriate use of analogies to the Nazi genocide in Australian public debate."