Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has demanded the Victorian Labor Party take down a social media post criticised as a “nasty” attack on federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and his family.
The post referenced an interview the Liberal leader’s wife, Kirilly Dutton, gave to Queensland’s The Sunday Mail in 2019, in which she declared he was “not a monster”.
The Victorian Labor post shared yesterday morning used an image from the article and repurposed the quote while adding text saying, “Justifying dating your new partner to your friends who don’t like him”.
“We all know that one couple,” the post said, with an emoji.
It provoked a strong backlash from the Liberal party before Albanese ordered it be pulled down last night.
“The prime minister demanded it be taken down. Families should be off limits,” a spokesman for Albanese told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Dutton promised not to attack Albanese’s fiancée, Jodie Haydon, during the upcoming election campaign.
“I respect and like Jodie but she is not an elected official and will not be the subject of humiliation, attack ads or public smear by the Liberal Party,” he said, on X.
“I would ask the PM to equally respect my wife.”
Victorian Senator James Paterson had been one of the first to criticise the post, claiming that Labor had “given up solving the cost of living crisis”.
“All they have is nasty personal smears against Peter Dutton and his family,” he said, on X.
“Do you endorse this juvenile content [Anthony Albanese]?”
Victorian Labor Party state secretary Steve Staikos defended the meme, saying “it’s not a personal attack – that’s a mischaracterisation of the post”.
“It’s a screenshot from a newspaper article that they [the Duttons] willingly participated in,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“It was posted as a bit of commentary, like a lot of memes are by all political parties.”
