‘Respect my wife’: Ugly Dutton storm erupts

A nasty row has erupted over a picture of Peter Dutton and his wife — forcing the PM to step in and the opposition leader to hit back.

Peter Dutton has hit back after the Victorian Labor Party made a social media post attacking the Opposition Leader and his wife Kirilly.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered the meme, which featured a photo of the couple from a Courier-Mail article under the headline “He is not a monster”, to be removed.

The now-deleted post added a caption to the original headline: “Justifying dating your new partner to friends who don’t like him”

Mr Dutton responded to reporting of the meme on social media, saying the Liberal Party he led would never target Anthony Albanese’s partner, Jodie Haydon.

“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.

“I would ask the PM to equally respect my wife.”

Victorian state secretary Steve Staikos earlier defended the post saying “it’s not a personal attack at all” and was “supposed to be a comedic meme”.

The Victorian Labor post has since been taken down.

Liberal Senator James Paterson criticised the post on X, tagging Mr Albanese to ask if he supported “this juvenile content”.

“Labor has given up solving the cost of living crisis. All they have is nasty personal smears against Peter Dutton and his family,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office said: “When the tweet was drawn to his attention, the Prime Minister demanded it be taken down. Families should be off limits.”

The post has since been taken down.

The Prime Minister said ‘families should be off limits’. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Dutton asked Albanese ‘to equally respect my wife’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Both Mr Dutton and Mr Albanese have done interviews with their partners in the lead up to previous elections, bringing their families into the media to court voters.

The original photo shoot in Victoria Labor’s post was from one such interview just weeks prior to the 2019 federal election.

The Courier Mail’s front page headline for the rare interview was taken from Kirilly, reading “my Pete’s no monster,” as she defended her family from what she said were personal attacks on their children.

At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Minister for Education Jason Clare said he thought the post “was stupid and it was wrong”.

“A family should be off limits,” he said. “We’re on the ballot paper, not our partners, that’s why when the Prime Minister saw it, he demanded that it be ripped down and I’m glad it has.”

Originally published as ‘Respect my wife’: Ugly Dutton storm erupts