T-shirt outrage: Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons sorry for faux pas

Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons has admitted he should have paid closer attention to a slogan on a T-shirt he wore at an Oktoberfest event on the weekend that’s caused a stir.

A number of his fellow councillors are outraged and a petition is circulating calling for the colourful mayor to be sacked.

The T-shirt, which he first bought in London years ago, shows a picture of a naked Madonna holding a towel with the words ‘Gas, grass or a**, nobody rides for free.’

But Cr Lyons was adamant he hadn’t read the slogan properly before putting it on and agreed on Neil Mitchell’s program it was sexist.

He’s standing by the image, which he says is artistic.

‘I didn’t realise what was written on the logo on the T-shirt and I probably have regret about chucking it on, bit of faux pas,’ he said.

‘Great picture, great image of our time, but probably wrong place at the wrong time, Neil.

‘I should have looked at it more closely. I don’t have an issue with the image, I certainly have an absolute issue with the scrawl.’

He conceded he’d learnt a good lesson but said he wouldn’t apologise for the image itself.

There were a number of councillors hellbent on bringing him down, he said.

Listen: Geelong mayor sorry for offensive slogan