Australian PM's six-word apology for 'entirely inappropriate' Kylie Minogue comment

Australian PM's six-word apology for 'entirely inappropriate' Kylie Minogue comment Australian Prime Minister's six-word apology after Kylie Minogue 'shag' gaffe Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has found himself in hot water over the weekend after implying he would “sh*g” pop idol Kylie Minogue, with his comments sparking widespread backlash from politicians from all sides. The Prime Minister sat down with comedian Nikki Osborne last week for an appearance on radio network Nova’s Bush Deep podcast. The show is known for its chaotic interviews with celebrities and public figures with Osborne in character as 'Bushie', an ochre, no-holds-barred Outback-type with no filter. Albanese's turn on the often wildly inappropriate podcast was no exception. The Prime Minister was asked to play a few rounds of the game “sh*g, marry or date”, with the PM to deliver his personal verdict on a slew of iconic Aussies such as Minogue, Nicole Kidman, and more. And, well, the segment went as well as you could imagine. When asked about Australia's own pop princess, Kylie, Albanese initially tried to skirt around the question but was thwarted quickly by his host in Osborne. “I’ve just got married, I’m only six months in …” the Australian Prime Minister said, with Osborne firing back without skipping a beat: “But if it goes t*ts up?”“Kylie, clearly,” Mr Albanese replied. But his answer was still unclear. And, like a dog with a bone, Osborne was not letting go: “You’d marry Kylie? And sh*g her? And date her?”And, while he played it as safe as he could and - to be fair - never actually uttered the word “sh*g” in the process, Albanese replied: “All of the above. She’s terrific.” Albanese's political opponents had an absolute field day with the Prime Minister's comments on Kylie.The awkward segment was sprang upon by MPs within the opposition and beyond. The Australian newspaper quoted Independent MP Zali Steggall, who supposedly said it was “entirely inappropriate for the prime minister to participate in such a game” and Albanese should “learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist”.The Australian quoted Liberal shadow minister for communications Sarah Henderson as saying Albanese’s remarks were “disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians, and demean the office of Prime Minister”. Fellow Liberal Andrew Bragg sat down with Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, on Monday, telling its Radio National programme: “I think these comments were beneath his office and I think he shouldn’t have said them. It’s good that he’s apologised, but he shouldn’t have said it in the first place”.The Prime Minister clearly regretted the podcast segment, and issued a six word statement on Monday in the wake of a weekend full of cringe and criticism. The one-line statement from the Prime Minister’s office simply said: “I apologise unequivocally for the comments.” Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson also condemned the prime minister, saying: "Australians deserve better.""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 Labor is collapsing," the Liberal MP said. "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."Australia's previous prime minister, Liberal leader Scott Morrison, said during a 2021 Question Time session that it is a 'triumph of democracy' that a group of women weren't "met with bullets" for protesting. T He received a lot of backlash for his comments at the time. The women he was referring to were picketing against gendered violence, and were calling for the Morrison's government to act on a 12-month-old report by the Australian Human Rights Commission which exposed the intensity and prevalence of sexual harassment across Australian workplaces. But, back to Albanese. In defence of the Australian Labor leader, frontbencher Tanya Plibersek pointed out Albo's track record on gender equality when pressed about his controversial comments by 7NEWS. “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," she said, before adding: “What I’d say on women’s equality in this country is no governments been better for it, and no prime minister’s been better for it.”Albanese on Sunday flew to Fiji where he is poised to sign a major treaty with the island nation. There he will also parley with three other Pacific leaders and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The man acting in his stead, acting prime minister, Richard Marles, also jumped to the defence of the Labor leader when asked about the awkward interview. “The prime minister has apologised unequivocally, so that’s the first point to make,” he told ABC's Radio National programme. “I think from time to time we do interviews, which are obviously different to the one that you and I are doing now.“The government that the prime minister leads is the first government in our nation’s history which has had an equality in terms of the numbers of men and women in cabinet. It’s the first government ever to have had a majority of women in the caucus. Under this government the gender pay gap is the lowest that it has ever been on record. "I mean, our prime minister is utterly committed to the place of women within our society and the elevation of women in our society.”