‘Kylie Minogue is terrific’: Why Australia PM Albanese’s podcast appearance has sparked anger

The famous "Can't Get You Out of My Head" pop singer Kylie Minogue was picked by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the 'shag, marry, date' game on a comedy podcast interview last week.

Albanese, who got married 8 months ago to Jodie Haydon, said on the Bush Deep podcast with comedian Nikki Osborne that he would have sex with pop icon Minogue.

Albanese's bizarre confession immediately drew sharp rebukes from female parliamentarians, and even some of his own Labour Party's female members notably declined to defend him.

After a slew of criticism, today (July 6), the prime minister’s office released a one-line statement from Albanese: "I apologise unequivocally for the comments".

We take a look.

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Kylie, clearly: Albanese's shocking 'sex' confession

Australia’s left-wing PM was being interviewed on the Bush Deep podcast. The lighthearted interview was released late last week. During an impromptu game of “shag, marry, date," the host asked Albanese whether he would "shag, marry or date" Minogue, actress Nicole Kidman or entertainer Rhonda Burchmore.

In that rapid-fire question, the PM was meant to place Minogue, Kidman and Burchmore in a sex, marry and date game.

Initially, Albanese attempted to dodge the question by saying: "I just got married, I’m only six months in.” However, the podcast host Osborne pressed: “But if it goes tits up, let’s just pretend.”

The governing leader of the Labour Party then responded, “Kylie, clearly.”

Watch the video here:

"You'd marry Kylie, and shag her, and date her?" Osborne asked. To which Albanese responded: "All of the above. She's terrific."

In the wild podcast interview, the global leader further made candid remarks about his sex life with his second wife, Haydon, saying "a South Sydney Rugby League team win was a good aphrodisiac."

The 'sex' confession statements were made during an interview that occurred in the prime minister's official residence in Canberra, the BBC reported.

"Australians deserve better"... female parliamentarians react

Albanese was quickly met by a wave of condemnation, with many slamming him for his vulgarity and old-fashioned sexism.

"Entirely inappropriate," Community Strong MP Zali Steggall labelled Albanese's response to the question, adding that he should not have participated in the game. "He needs to learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist," she furthered.

In a post on X, Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson blasted the Australian leader's comments as "disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians and demean the office of Prime Minister."

"Rather than politely decline to engage, Mr Albanese got into the gutter with his grubby remarks, which show extremely poor judgement at a time when trust in Labour is collapsing," she said, ABC News reported.

"Mr Albanese's crude locker room talk makes a mockery of Labour's claim to be champions of women. How low can this prime minister go? Australians deserve better than this," Henderson thundered.

Dai Le, an Independent Member of Parliament (MP) of Fowler, Australia, questioned Albanese’s decorum. Le told Australia's Today Show: “In parliament, we’re not supposed to use certain words."

“I will find that very unbecoming of a gentleman. But maybe the prime minister is trying to appeal to another group, a target audience that doesn’t mind that kind of language being used," she added.

"If what the PM is saying": Albanese's defenders

Surprisingly, some jumped in Albanese's defence.

Government frontbencher Tanya Plibersek asserted that the Australian government has strong credentials on women's equality.

"I'm not going to comment on a podcast I haven't heard. I've heard a few seconds of it," she said on Channel Seven, according to the Guardian.

Adding, "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,” Plibersek added.

“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.”

Richard Marles, who is acting prime minister while Albanese is on a diplomatic tour of the Pacific, told ABC News: "The government was 'utterly committed' to the elevation of 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," he said.

The popstar Minogue has yet to respond to the controversy.

With inputs from agencies