Anthony Albanese taken to task over Kylie Minogue podcast comments | 3AW Melbourne

But I want to start this hour on the Prime Minister's decision to appear on a comedic podcast last week and the fact that it has totally backfired.Now, Anthony Albanese has today apologised unequivocally for comments he made on this podcast.Now, if you miss the comments made by the Prime Minister, have a listen.

all of the above.

How could the Prime Minister's media team be so inept to put the leader of this country in a position where he had to talk about shagging celebrities?How could the Prime Minister himself be so foolish to indulge the host with an answer?Prime Minister, this isn't pub banter with the boys.This is a publicly available podcast.Mr Albanese then goes on to talk about his sex life and what gets him going.

Six months in.

Still in the honeymoon period.

Absolutely.

Still bonking like rabbits.

Well, you know, when we have time.

Yeah, that's fair.That's what happens when you get married, you've got to schedule it, don't you?

After the footy.

After the footy.

There's always a good aphrodisiac at Southwind.

Is this an episode of South Park or something?Anthony Albanese holds what should be the most respected position in the land.He wasn't caught on a hot mic, it wasn't a gotcha moment, it was the Prime Minister trying to appear jovial and an everyday bloke.Instead he came off looking immature and anything but Prime Ministerial.As for the response from his colleagues, well here's Tanya Plibersek this morning on 7 Sunrise after being played the podcast on air.

just played to you?What do you think about that bit?

Well, if what the Prime Minister's saying is that he's a fan of Kylie Minogue, I guess that puts him in a group with millions of other Australians, including me.Including me. I'm a big fan of Kylie's as well.Would you play the shag married date game on a podcast?Yeah.No one's asked me that question any time recently, I can tell you that.

Not going to comment.Minister, that is pathetic.If this was Angus Taylor, you and I both know you'd be the first to cut him down.But because it's your mate...Oh, no, no, no comment.No comment.

He just likes Kylie.In an interview with the ABC this morning, acting PM Richard Miles rilled off a long list of the PM's achievements when it comes to women and brushed it off as a different kind of interview.Again, what if this were the opposition?It wouldn't just be brushed off as another interview.There is no issue.with the Prime Minister doing light -hearted issues.

No issue with the Prime Minister having a bit of fun.It doesn't always have to be hard -hitting.But when you talk about celebrities you want to shag and talk about when you have sex with your partner, it is beyond the pale of what the electorate needs to know.And Mr Albanese, you are the Prime Minister of Australia.For goodness sake, start acting like it.Again, he has made an unequivocal apology.

The fact that he was put in that situation in the first instance and then answered the questions and laughed along with it, it's not prime ministerial by any stretch of the imagination.Joining me on the line now is political marketing expert Andrew Hughes.Andrew, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Shane.Good afternoon, everyone.

Was it an error?

A massive one by two sets of people.One, the media team themselves to say yes to an interview like that.It's not as though Nikki Osbournework is unknown.She's got a YouTube channel.You can look it up.

There's work on there already.It's sort of stuff she does.They would have got an understanding from that that what the interview could turn into.So, yep, they could have walked away from that.And then the Prime Minister himself.He has gone decades in this game.

He would know better than to do what he did.He could have overruled the media team at any time and gone, you know what, not for me.Even during the interview itself, he still could have gone, nope, that is not a question I'm going to answer.I'm going to pay respect to the women out there who do it tough in Australia.I'm going to walk away from that question altogether.any time he could have said no and any time he could have walked away.

I know doing an interview with Sarah Ferguson on 730 or with Tom Elliott on 3AW or with Jackie, it can be challenging.You've got to stay on your feet.But why do this interview?

Yeah, exactly.I mean, he's trying to reach a young audience.The concern within Labor is that his age is going to become an issue at the next election.How does he connect with younger voters going through what they're going through that part of life?The whole thing is be authentic and be honest.You can't understand people going through that part of life because you're in a different category of life.

So what you can do instead is have your policies reflect your understanding of what they're going through.You don't necessarily have to get to their level to get that connection, to get that resonance with people.You can actually do it through, I listened, I heard, and my policies reflect that.that's far more effective, particularly as a Prime Minister, than doing that interview the way he did right there.

So you think both the Prime Minister and his media team believe by doing that interview and talking about who he'd shag and when he has sex with his partner, that that ultimately is aimed at a younger audience and, oh, the Prime Minister talks about who he wants to shag, I'll vote for him.

Yeah, see, and here's the thing too, Shane, keep in mind, he told off his Assistant Minister for Health, Rebecca White, for doing something similar over Christmas time in Tasmania.Now that was a private meeting, it was overheard by a Liberal Member of Parliament at the time.Two other State Labor MPs were involved in that conversation as well.It was something similar to what happened in that podcast.So he would know that that's the standard he said is unacceptable, then he does it himself.And you just think, what's going on there?

So there's a lot of hard work to do for Labor.They've had a shocking last three months.on the communications front.They've had disasters over communicating us about fuel shortages, disasters on the budget, disasters now on defence and now add this into the mix.I mean it just shows that their game is lacking and this is what happens when the opposition isn't putting pressure on them or can put pressure on them.Imagine if that changes.

Wow.I mean, then we have a race on our hands in 2028, if that's when the next election is. I thought Tanya Plibersek dropped the ball this morning.

I mean, here's someone that is a strong feminist that has the ability to stand up for her convictions, come across as a strong woman, and she wilted.

Yeah, I agree with that.And I think Katie Gallagher, her silence on this as well.And Penny Wong, who's travelling with the Prime Minister at the moment.all being very silent about this, and yet had it been a Liberal Party person coming out and saying those things again, and we've seen that whole lot of it as well.The words said to Bridget McKenzie in that Senate estimates hearing where one of the Labor Party senators said, I'll cut you up.I mean, come on.

It's either one standard for everyone, or just don't try and hold people to standards then, which you expect them to follow, but you won't yourself.That's just double standards and hypocrisy at the highest levels.

Some will say that the Prime Minister is just trying to be an everyday man.Should the Prime Minister be an everyday man though?

He can, and he can do it in other ways.I mean, Scott Morrison was the Bunnings dad, remember?He came out and said, oh, I go to Bunnings on weekends and I build things, and some of us made fun of that.But at least he was trying to be relatable in a more honest, authentic, down -to -earth way.And I think, yes, there's ways you can do it, but that'sone of them.

I would have maybe done something else, something different.I mean, he's used his dog Toto in the past, for example.Toto had its own starring role as a pup during the 2025 election campaign.That is a good way to become relatable, but using these sort of podcasts and these sort of methods, no, come on, walk away from that, be better.It's not just who you are as a person, it's the office of Prime Minister.That was done at the Lodge too, that interview.

I mean, that is the official residence of our highest leader in the land, politically speaking.That is something we should always respect, and that should always be respected by those people who hold the office.

Yeah, and I think that's where the Prime Minister, when you are holding what is the highest position in the land, but also what should be the most respected position in the land, that is where you need to be better than that.

Yeah, exactly.I mean, he talked about standards.I mean, we look to the Prime Minister, not just for what they say in terms of politics, but also for what they say, standards, personally.I hope he's apologised to his partner as well, because some of the things there, I mean, talking about your sex life publicly, I cannot remember another leader, state or federal level, this century, who's done that.

I don't know whether to judge him for that or the fact that he thinks the South Sydney rabbitos are a bit of an aphrodisiac.

Yeah, the season they're having too.

Thank you for converting it for our AFL audience.Andrew, always nice to catch up.Appreciate your time.

No worries at all.Thanks Shane, thanks everyone.

Andrew Hughes, political marketing expert.

I want to ask you this quickly because you have been a spin doctor as well as - You could call it a spin doctor.As the many career hats that you've worn, what would spin doctor Steve -O have done in this situation with Elbow?

Yeah, well, I was head of media at the Nationals here in Victoria and I would have sat down with Elbow and gone through the pros and cons and pretty quickly I would have said, Elbow, don't do it.Don't even go on the podcast.So you have a look through the type of questions you're likely to get, the type of audience, elbow.You don't need to be cool for school.You don't need to put on your tight black shirt, sit there on the couch.and try and look normal.

Don't do the podcast.Too dangerous.So yeah, we'd obviously go through the podcast and can them if we thought that wasn't worth it.

Yep.It's tricky with podcasts though, isn't it?Because they do want to do the, let's be the every man or every woman and let's seem like we're with the people or we can, you know, we're on their level.But the reality is...You're the PM of the country and you're not the everyman.

No, but I think it humanises him what he's done, but certainly he doesn't need the publicity.Absolutely not.So if you're a spin doctor for Elbow today, you're pretty busy.I'd suggest that he'll lead all the news services tonight.And I would have thought he'll have to come out and do some sort of press conference just to clean this up.which is the last thing you want.

So rule number one, Elbow, don't do it.

Podcasts make people say some strange things, a little bit different from radio and TV.Some different things come out on podcasts.The PM had an interesting experience on a podcast.

Yeah, well, you're right, Jimmy, because I've fallen for that myself, and I've said things on podcasts, I thought, oh God, why do they say that?Because they want you to ramble on.And so you do stop saying self -editing.So now, of course, in the news, but I'm not the Prime Minister, obviously, but now, of course, the Prime Minister is in the news for references to Kylie Minogue and his bedroom activities with his wife.So, you know, I don't know why.Look, I've listened to the whole thing a couple of times.

It could have been worse.uh... and certainly if you know she was guiding him in those directions and that's what her job is. I mean, Nikki Osborne's a very talented, very funny lady.I would question why you would want to go on it if you are the Prime Minister, because you know that she's going to want to take you into territory that is probably going to get you into trouble, which indeed it has done now.And, you know, I thought he could have handled it a lot better.I just wonder what the wisdom was, if any, in actually agreeing to do it in the first place, when he's not on the campaign trail.But he seems to want to do these

things maybe makes him feel hip or something you know you always wanted to appear on Kyle and Jackie O's show and now doing things like this I find certainly unbecoming of a Prime Minister.