Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has issued an apology after saying he would ‘s**g, marry, and date’ Kylie Minogue.
Albanese, 63, made the declaration on a podcast last week, filmed at his official residence in Canberra, when asked a series of quickfire questions by comedian Nikki Osborne.
Insisting ‘every guest gets asked these,’ she began: ‘S**g, marry, date: Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, or Rhonda Burchmore?’
Initially, Labor Party leader Albanese, 63, put his hand to his chest, feigning offence and saying: ‘I’ve just got married. I’m only six months in!’
‘But if it goes t**s up, let’s just pretend…’, Osborne probed, to which Albanese replied: ‘Oh, Kylie, clearly.’
‘You’d marry Kylie? And s**g her? And date her?’, Osborne said, with Albanese stating: ‘All of the above.’
‘She’s terrific,’ he praised the I Should Be So Lucky hitmaker, 58, before the host moved on.
Albanese was widely criticised for his remarks, prompting him to release a one-line statement this morning.
It read: ‘I apologise unequivocally for the comments.’
Among those condemning the PM, who married partner Jodie Haydon, 47, in November, was Community Strong MP Zali Steggall, who branded what he said ‘entirely inappropriate’ and said he never should’ve played the game.
‘He needs to learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist,’ she said.
Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson also called the comments ‘disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians, and [demeaning] the office of prime minister’.
‘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.’
Meanwhile, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg told Radio National that Albanese’s quip was ‘beneath his office’ and ‘shouldn’t’ have been said.
In contrast, others, such as Labor minister Tanya Plibersek, defended Albanese’s gender equality record, adding that ‘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,’ she told Channel Seven viewers.
‘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 Marle further insisted that the government is ‘utterly committed’ to elevating women in society: ‘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.’
However, Albanese made other comments in his interview that raised eyebrows, despite the podcast appearance being widely praised in the YouTube comments for its casual, light-hearted tone.
At one point, he was asked about the worst gift he had received on a business visit overseas, to which he said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gave him two melons, which was ‘strange’ but ‘quite good’.
‘She just came in looking like Pamela Anderson?’, asked Osborne, with Albanese smiling and waving his hands in front of his chest.
Minogue herself has not yet responded to the controversy.
The Padam Padam singer has long been viewed as an inspiration to women, both through her music and her activism.
In 2014, when she became the only female coach on The Voice, she responded to the programme’s so-called ‘gender imbalance’ with: ‘I have to say this is working for me… And I hope that I’m giving a voice to the women, the girls who look up to me or anyone like me in the business.’
Most recently, amid the release of her Netflix docuseries, the performer reflected on the public scrutiny and misogyny she has faced since hitting the big time in the 80s.
‘There’s always a lot of talk about how much I’ve changed,’ she shared at a Q&A in London.
‘I was famous before I knew what I was doing, so, you know, and there came a lot of the criticism and the hardship with that, but what’s illuminating to me is, in so many ways, I haven’t changed.’
Around the same time, the former Neighbours actress opened up further, admitting that there is still progress to be made, despite society being more open-minded these days.
‘It would be nice not to be asked about your age,’ she admitted. ‘I’m still asked about it. I don’t know that Mick Jagger gets asked about it.
‘I think as a whole we’re much more open-minded. But there’ll always be a way to go.’
Reps for Kylie Minogue have been contacted for comment.