A staff member in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office has been suspended after posting an image of a t-shirt emblazoned with the words “Tuck Frump” to Facebook.
Yvette Kerr, the Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, posted the image to Facebook in November, 2GB’s Ben Fordham reported.
The image was displayed as the cover photo of a Facebook profile she used under an alias, alongside a link to the website tuckfrump.com.
The Prime Minister’s office has responded, saying “the employee accepts that these posts were inappropriate and has deleted them from her account”.
Ms Kerr was immediately suspended while the matter is investigated.
The image remained on her Facebook profile for two months.
The news comes during a stressful week for Mr Turnbull following a hostile phone call with the US President.
Mr Turnbull was forced to deny the new President hung up on him, cutting their conversation short by 35 minutes.
“The report that the president hung up is not correct,” Mr Turnbull told Mr Fordham yesterday, adding the conversation with Mr Trump ended “courteously”.
Mr Turnbull said he was adamant the US would honour its commitment to take refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, despite Mr Trump’s tweet deriding the deal brokered between Australia and the Obama Administration as “dumb”.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827002559122567168
Mr Turnbull would not say whether Mr Trump labelled the deal "dumb" or otherwise in their phone conversation.
Mr Trump has since said he “respects” Australia.
READ MORE: Donald Trump says he ‘loves’ Australia but questions refugee resettlement deal
Nine's Political Editor Laurie Oakes will have a special interview with the Prime Minister on 60 Minutes this Sunday at 8.30pm.