‘We say jump, Albo asks how high?’
An army of “new media” is creating a stir in the lead-up to the Australian Federal election, giving insight into Albo’s recent polarising question time stunt.
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Prime Anthony Albanese accepted an influencer’s challenge to work a weird phrase into his speech to Parliament as the major parties battle it out for the major youth vote.
After appearing on the Happy Hour podcast, which is ranked 76th on the Australian Spotify charts, the Prime Minister was given a challenge by the show’s hosts Nikki Westcott and Lucy Kate Jackson.
Released on Wednesday but recorded the week prior, one segment of the 50-minute episode featured a quiz in which the Prime Minister was required to listen to sentences that featured slang words and phrases that are frequently used by younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha Australians.
Mr Albanese would then guess the meaning behind each term or phrase.
“I must be delulu, but I feel like he was giving me the eyes,” said Jackson.
The Prime Minister, without missing a beat, responded by correctly guessing the actual meaning of the word: “delusional.”
Keeping true to the goals of his political campaign, Mr Albanese then engaged in some healthy gamesmanship by ripping into the policy proposals made by the Opposition.
“Delusional … like Peter Dutton on Nuclear Power Costs,” he said, sporting a cheeky grin.
“I dare you to drop that in a speech,” replied Jackson.
“Delulu with no solulu,” added Westcott, coining the term that has since reverberated around the nation.
“We’ve got budget week next week, listen up … it will be a little in-joke between the three of us,” said Mr Albanese.
On Wednesday morning, during a particularly fiery exchange in the House of Representatives, Mr Albanese was in the midst of criticising the coalition’s opposition to Labor’s proposed tax cuts, when – remembering his little dare – he decided to spring into action.
“This year we have almost halved the deficit that (the opposition) forecast, and those opposite have the hide this morning to speak about a stronger economy and to speak about fiscal policy,” he said.
“They are delulu with no solulu, Mr Speaker. They are completely delusional.”
Mr Albanese received shouts and jeers from the coalition benches, and enthusiastic laughter from his party members.
The stunt clearly worked with voters on TikTok.
“I can’t believe he said that he’s got my vote,” one person said.
“Honestly same. He’s got the vote of Millenials and Gen Z.”
In an effort to engage with a more diverse range of audiences, Mr Albanese has spent the last few weeks engaging with a number of social media influencers, podcasters and social advocates.
Social media content creators travelled to Canberra this week, and were granted entry into Parliament House Budget Lockup alongside the typical cohort of legacy media journalists.
Speaking to SBS, a number of these creators gave insight into why politicians are becoming more interested in seeking them out.
“Young people particularly are not getting their information from traditional news sources any more – that’s just the way it is – therefore it is so important that we get as much truthful information and fact out there as possible so young people can decide for themselves,” said Milly Rose Bannister, founder of ALLKND – a Gen Z mental health support and education platform.
Last year, the University of Canberra reported that 49 per cent of Australians use social media to access their news.
In 2023, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) conducted a similar study into the news consumption habits of Aussies. It found 31 per cent of those between the ages of 18-24 who considered social media to be their main source of news largely got their news from influencers and celebrities rather than traditional media outlets.
“I think the expectation is that (parliament) is a place for traditional legacy media and not for newcomers who are entering the space and trying to change what the Australian media landscape looks like,” said Cheek Media’s Hannah Ferguson.
“There is a new-found interest and a demand from our audiences that we are politically engaged and educated and informed – that we have that dialogue with them to communicate our values,” she said.
“The positioning – because the majority of us are young women – is that we’re “influencers”, and not worthy of taking up the space, and I think that’s something really worth combating and disrupting because I’d say we’re new media, not influencers.”
The federal election has been called for May 3.
Originally published as ‘We say jump, Albo asks how high?’
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