Two of Labor’s most senior women have dodged questions about the Prime Minister’s offensive remarks towards high profile females, while the leaders of the Coalition and One Nation have ruled out appearing on the controversial podcast where the comments were made.
Anthony Albanese issued an “unequivocal apology” earlier this week for suggesting he wanted to “shag” pop icon Kylie Minogue during his appearance on the Bush Deep podcast hosted by Nikki Osborne.
Liberal leader Angus Taylor on Wednesday stepped up his criticism of Mr Albanese’s comments, saying the Prime Minister “lacks a compass” over the podcast comments which included innuendo about the Japanese Prime Minister’s “melons”.
“I thought it was beneath the Office of the Prime Minister to comment on that. You can always say in an interview, if someone asks you a question which you don’t really think it’s right to give an answer, ‘I’m not going to answer that question.’,” Mr Taylor said. “I think he lacks a compass. I mean, if I’d said something like that, my wife would never forgive me – and fair enough. I mean, seriously. This is not something that someone who either has the office of Prime Minister, or in my case aspires to the office, should be saying.”
During a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday, Cabinet Ministers Anika Wells and Kristy McBain both declined to comment on the PM’s actions when questioned by The Nightly.
“My absolute priority today, as we have customers still offline for the national adage from our national telcos, is to get people back online as quickly as possible, to get small business back online as quickly as possible, get to the bottom of the dozens of welfare checks that we are awaiting news of from Telstra in conjunction with the triple zero custodian, and I think Australians want me absolutely focused on that,” Ms Wells said.
Separately every other female member of Anthony Albanese’s cabinet has declined to comment or has not responded to questions about the Prime Minister’s conduct, when approached by The Nightly this week.
Despite speculation another high-profile politician will soon appear on the Bush Deep podcast, a One Nation spokesman told The Nightly that Senators Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce and other members of the minor party would not be taking part.
A spokesperson for Angus Taylor confirmed to The Nightly that the Opposition Leader had not been approached to take part in the program.
The UK’s biggest selling tabloid The Sun dedicated a whole page to the PM’s comments towards Minogue in their edition on Tuesday, with the article titled “I SHOULD BE SO SORRY!” and “Aussie PM grovels after saying he’d ‘shag’ Kylie.
While the Aussie pop icon has remained silent on the controversy, Kylie Minogue’s fans have been keenly following the saga online.
“I bet the Australian PM is watching” one follower commented on a video the star posted on Wednesday about her tour with Snow Patrol.
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