Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has revealed his fondness for our very own Princess of Pop, Kylie Minogue.
On this latest episode of Nova’s brand-new podcast Bush Deep, the show’s host Bushie (aka Australian comedian Nikki Osborne) sat down with the PM for a very cheeky chat at The Lodge in Canberra.
In the tongue-in-cheek interview over a bottle of whiskey, Albanese let his guard down with Osborne as the pair talked everything from WhatsApp group chats with world leaders to how being Opposition Leader is a “crap job.”
Between all the not-so-serious chatter, Osborne and Albanese played a game of the classic Aussie pastime “shag, marry or date.”
Host Osborne asked the PM: “Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman or Rhonda Burchmore?”
After a brief pause, Albanese tried to play things safe, saying: “I’ve just got married, I’m only six months in …”
But Osborne was having none of it, and she quickly fired back: “But if it goes t–s up?”
“Kylie, clearly,” he replied.
“You’d marry Kylie? And shag her? And date her?” questioned the host.
“All of the above,” Albanese said, letting out a little giggle. “She’s terrific.”
Osborne has amassed a following of over a million fans on social media, and her new series with Nova will see her also interview the likes of Larry Emdur, Manu Feildel, Steph Tolev, Colin Fassnidge, Michael Wipfli, Osher Gunsberg and Colin Mochrie.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has been in the headlines recently for advocating for expanding the country’s world-first under-16 social media ban.
The federal government plans to strengthen online safety laws amid mounting evidence that children are still accessing major platforms, more than six months after age restrictions were first introduced.
However, during a recent appearance in parliament, the PM delivered a speech with a very graphic term that sparked a lot of attention on social media.
“We know that algorithms drive people toward more and more extreme positions,” Albanese told the House of Representatives.
“So they start off in a mainstream position – talking about ethnicity perhaps, or faith – and they end up, over a period of time, receiving in their inbox … Nazi-level propaganda, with calls for violence.”
He then detailed the physical toll of these extreme online pipelines.
“With some of these algorithms coming through, we’re seeing increased presentations in our hospitals of young women who have been choked, strangled. We see anal tearing growing at an extraordinary, horrific rate because what too many young men are seeing online is normalizing behavior that is anything but.”
On social media, viewers couldn’t get over the Prime Minister’s choice of words.
“Albo shouldn’t be dropping ‘anal tearing’ in parliament,” one user wrote.
“WTF did I just watch?” another confused viewer asked.
“This can’t be real … Surely the PM didn’t say that,” a third added.
