Opinion: Anthony Albanese tough guy act over Labor post reveals fear of electorate

Anthony Albanese’s faux muscle flex over a social media post attacking Peter Dutton and his wife speaks of a government devoid of policies and terrified of being kicked out of office, writes Kylie Lang.

The Victorian Labor social media post attacking Peter Dutton and his wife

• PM acts: ‘Monster’ post deleted

Anthony Albanese’s faux muscle flex over a social media post attacking Peter Dutton and wife Kirrily speaks of a government devoid of policies and terrified of being booted out after one term.

It also confirms that Albo is the weakest PM we’ve ever had.

The post in question, put up by the Victorian Labor Party, featured a 2019 newspaper photo of Mrs Dutton, who said of her husband in a doctored headline, “He is not a monster.”

It was captioned: “We all know that one couple … justifying dating your new partner to friends who don’t like him.”

Hilarious and just so witty. Not.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Isn’t Labor supposed to be fully supportive of protecting people from cyber-bullying? Isn’t it at pains to point out it champions women, and The Coalition does not?

But it’s what happened next that shows Mr Albanese is trying desperately to be an adult but failing miserably.

He “demanded” the post be taken down.

How do we know this? A spokesperson for the missing-in-action PM told us so.

“Families should be off-­limits,” the unnamed spokesperson said.

We all know Mr Albanese is not what you would call a first responder.

He’s typically late to provide any form of leadership – recall his chain dragging after the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue earlier this month when it took him days to declare it a likely terrorist attack.

And so it was on Monday night, when Mr Albanese waited until after Mr Dutton had asked for respect before issuing any kind of response.

Rightfully so, Mr Dutton said his campaign would not target family members, such as Mr Albanese’s fiancee 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.

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

Some time later, Mr Albanese – and/or his highly paid media advisers – thought it would be a good look for him to “intervene”.

The Victorian Labor Party removed the post – but rather than looking like a hero, Mr Albanese looks like a fool.