Hollywood icon Pamela Anderson has spoken out about former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “insensitive” comments towards her back in 2018, sharing the details in her new memoir.
In Love, Pamela, Anderson writes about her interaction with Morrison when she approached him as an advocate and vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. She had publicly urged him to appeal to British and American authorities to free Assange, appearing on 60 Minutes to make the case.
“While I was in Australia, I had hoped to meet with PM Scott Morrison, to make a plea in person to the Australian government to help Julian,” she wrote.
“After I wrote an open letter to Mr Morrison, he responded cheekily in the press by saying he’d love to meet me if he could bring a few of his buddies along. That didn’t go over well — women were unimpressed with his insensitive remarks, which, by then, had reached the international press.”
At the time, Morrison had gone on commercial radio and had been asked about Anderson’s pleas for Assange.
Morrison replied that “I’ve had plenty of mates who’ve asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson”.
Anderson did not take kindly to Morrison’s “smutty” comments, as she described them, penning an open letter to him.
“You trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family. You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion,” she wrote.
“Rather than making lewd suggestions about me, perhaps you should instead think about what you are going to say to millions of Australians when one of their own is marched in an orange jumpsuit to Guantanamo Bay — for publishing the truth.
“We all deserve better from our leaders, especially in the current environment.”
Morrison never apologised to Anderson, choosing to leave it the then Minister for Women, Kelly O’Dwyer, to address the situation. O’Dwyer told the media that Morrison “probably” regretted his comments about Anderson.
“I think the prime minister probably regrets the comments that he made and I certainly know from a discussion that he didn’t mean to cause any offence,” O’Dwyer told the National Press Club at the time.