Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently faced backlash for comments he made about Kylie Minogue during an appearance on the Bush Deep podcast, hosted by comedian Nikki Osborne.
During the podcast, Osborne posed a ‘rapid fire’ question to the prime minister, asking him to categorize Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, and Rhonda Burchmore into a ‘sh*g, marry, date’ scenario. Initially hesitant, Albanese pointed out his recent marriage, stating, “I’m only six months in.”
Osborne suggested a hypothetical scenario, saying, “But if it goes tits up, let’s just pretend.” Albanese responded, “Kylie, clearly,” prompting Osborne to ask for clarification: “You’d marry Kylie, and shag her, and date her?”
Albanese jokingly replied ‘all of the above’, adding: “She’s terrific.” These remarks were met with significant criticism, especially from political opponents.
Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson condemned the comments as ‘disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians and demean the office of prime minister’. She further remarked, “Mr Albanese’s crude locker room talk makes a mockery of Labor’s claim to be champions of women. How low can this prime minister go? Australians deserve better than this.”
Community Strong MP Zali Steggall also criticized Albanese, deeming his remarks ‘entirely inappropriate’ and urging him to “push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist.”
In response to the backlash, Albanese’s office issued a statement with a brief apology: “I apologise unequivocally for the comments.”
Despite the criticism, some politicians defended Albanese. Labor minister Tanya Plibersek, on Channel Seven, commented, “If what the prime minister is saying is he’s a fan of Kylie Minogue, I guess that puts him in a group with millions of other Australians, including me. I’m a big fan of Kylie’s as well. What I’d say on women’s equality in this country is no government’s been better for it, and no prime minister’s been better for it.”
Acting prime minister Richard Marles added on RN Breakfast that, “From time to time, we obviously do different interviews to the one we are doing now, but I think the other point to make here is that the government that the PM leads is the first in history that has had equality in terms of the number of men and women in cabinet.”