Where "Budgie smugglers" Comes From
"Budgie smugglers" refers to tight-fitting men's swimming briefs — Speedos or similar close-fitting swimwear — and the joke is in the image: a bulge in close-fitting swimmers that supposedly resembles a person attempting to conceal a small bird. The budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) is a small native Australian parrot, and "smuggling" one under tight Lycra is the kind of visual pun that Australian slang has a reliable appetite for. The term first appears in print in slang dictionaries around 2003 and was first defined on Urban Dictionary on 30 March 2003.
The expression may have been influenced by "grape smugglers," an earlier international term for the same garment. Speedo, the brand most associated with the style, was founded in Sydney in 1914 by Alexander MacRae — making the budgie-smuggler's cultural home genuinely Australian even if the "smuggler" joke has international precedents. The term gained particular national currency in the 2000s and 2010s when former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was photographed regularly in them at surf carnivals and triathlons, turning the garment into a minor political image.
Source: Australian National Dictionary Centre — “Word of the Month: budgie smugglers”
"Tony Abbott was notorious for his budgie smugglers."
How Aussies Actually Use It
"Budgie smugglers" is used, almost always with a laugh, for tight Speedo-style men's swimwear, as opposed to looser board shorts.
It's a good-natured tease rather than a genuine insult, and plenty of Australian men happily embrace the term for their choice of beachwear.
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