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Opinion
Updated July 6, 2026 — 5:09pm,first published 4:57pm
It’s what the kids would call cringe. You might also call it garden-variety sexism. You could definitely call it too much information.
The revelation that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese selected Kylie Minogue as his pick for a game of “shag, marry, date” was something none of us needed to know, and something we all wish we didn’t.
Albanese made the Kylie comment in the course of a podcast appearance with comedian Nikki Osborne.
To be fair, it was a looser style of interview, of the sort designed to showcase a politician’s relatability.
Is this relatable?
Not to feminist scolds such as myself. It’s just weary confirmation that not as much has changed as we would like to think.
The prime minister did apologise unequivocally, and quick-smart, after the remarks were widely publicised.
Perhaps it’s our own fault. We complain that our politicians are inauthentic, and we ask why they can never speak plainly. This is part of the appeal of Pauline Hanson, according to common wisdom.
But when they do, we howl and punish them for stepping out of bounds.
Except, except … why does relatability translate to what Donald Trump might call “locker room talk”?
Is it not possible to be casual and jocular, and also respect women? Make non-sexual jokes?
It was always going to be a wink-nudge kind of interview. The podcast is called Bush Deep, which seems to be a sexual pun. Osborne styles herself as “Bushie”, a sexy Barbie-meets-Steve Irwin character who shows plenty of leg and boasts 152,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her previous videos have millions of views.
As the prime minister notes in the course of the podcast, he doesn’t generally invite anyone into the Lodge for interviews.
“All the commercials will be upset,” he tells Osborne, over whisky, as the pair lounge in armchairs in front of the fireplace.
“’Cause normally I don’t let anyone in here.”
Why did he let Osborne in? It’s a mystifying question, as is the question of why his media advisers let him do it.
To connect with a younger audience? To demonstrate his authenticity in an anti-politician era? To reach so-called “low information” voters who have switched off mainstream news?
The fallout from the podcast only goes to show how difficult it is for politicians to navigate both legacy media outlets (such as this one) and new, social-media news sources.
If only it didn’t have to be all so stupid. Osborne’s opening gambit for the interview was: “The PM: that’s a bit full-on, isn’t it?”
The quality of questions didn’t improve from there and included inquiries about whether Albanese is in any WhatsApp groups with “big dog” world leaders, soft-balls like “Do you think a lot of journalism is clickbait now?” and the searching, “Would you rather eat shit that tastes like lollies or lollies that taste like shit?”
It’s not even that it’s unbecoming of the office of prime minister, although it certainly is.
This sort of stuff is unbecoming of anyone.
At least the PM declined to answer the question about fecal candy.
But he did make a gag about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi bringing melons as gifts, which made him seem graceless as well as leery.
Osborne’s schtick is a kind of Benny Hill-bimbo thing, though it’s unclear whether she is satirising the bimbo trope or simply playing to it. She even asked about the PM’s sex life. He didn’t have to answer, but he did.
In France, they have celebrated philosophers on television discussing politics.
One does aspire to patriotism, but it’s hard not to get the cringe when this is served up as Australia’s cultural output.
The mini-scandal is the latest in a solid tradition of (male) prime ministers going on light entertainment and getting in trouble for being what they might call “laddish”, though the very term plays to the winking nature of this sort of humour, where men are in the club and women are not.
Scott Morrison offended actor and activist Pamela Anderson when he was asked about her efforts to free Julian Assange in 2018.
Speaking on a Gold Coast radio station, Morrison joked that “I’ve had plenty of mates who have asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson”.
And then, of course, there was Tony Abbott, whose sexist remarks could fill one of those novelty mini-books they sell at bookstore counters, and probably have.
In 2013, he said that Liberal candidate Fiona Scott had “sex appeal”, and in a separate incident that year, identified himself as “the guy with the not-bad-looking daughters”.
In 2014, Abbott appeared on broadcaster Jon Faine’s ABC radio show and took a call from a pensioner named Gloria, who said she had been forced to work as a phone sex operator to make ends meet. Video footage caught Abbott winking at Faine. He was lambasted for it.
While Albanese is on an official visit in Fiji, his foot soldiers were sent out to explain – Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, and (the surely very reluctant) Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Their talking points emphasised Albanese’s credentials in boosting women, both in politics and policy. They noted his majority-female caucus.
“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,” Plibersek said on radio on Monday.
The best advice came from a strange corner.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said on Monday that the prime minister “has to be cleverer than that”.
Joyce said Albanese should have responded: “No, no, we just can’t answer questions like that. And thank you very much, but no thanks.”
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