Australia’s Labor Party leader Bill Shorten and the party’s candidate for the Batman by-election Ged Kearney have apologized after a campaign flyer used Greek text under the subheading ‘Macedonian’.
The error has angered some in Australia’s Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) community, SBS reports.
The flyer printed policy information in several languages including Arabic, Italian, Vietnamese and Greek. But the Greek language was also used in the ‘Macedonian’ section.
The Labor leader and Kearney have issued a statement saying it was production error made during the printing of the flyer.
The World Macedonian Congress Australia issued a public letter on Tuesday expressing “dismay” at the mistake.
“It is highly offensive and discriminatory to impose a Greek translation on the flyer, considering Macedonian is an internationally recognised language, that there are registered Australian Macedonian NAATI certified translators for the Macedonian language in Australia,” the non-profit organization said.
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