Anthony Albanese’s dig at Peter Dutton for joining TikTok

The Prime Minister said he was “somewhat bemused” by Peter Dutton embracing TikTok.

Anthony Albanese has called out Peter Dutton for joining TikTok after the Coalition’s loud calls to ban the social media platform over security concerns around Chinese tech.

The Prime Minister was responding to questions on Tuesday about whether Australia would follow the United States after the Biden administration said it was mulling over a ban on Chinese and Russian car tech, including software and hardware when he made the dig.

He took aim at the Coalition’s inconsistent record on TikTok, which has long been plagued by concerns China could use it to harvest data of Western citizens.

“People in the coalition, James Patterson and others, were calling for us to ban Tiktok a while ago,” he said.

“Peter Dutton recently got himself an account on TikTok, so they’re a bit all over the shop when it comes to that.”

He added that he “was somewhat bemused at the contradiction between a political party saying something should be banned while their leader is out there, opening up an account.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he was ‘bemused’ by Peter Dutton’s embrace of TikTok. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton joined the platform last week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Dutton joined the platform last week despite calling for it be banned just a few months ago.

In his debut video, Mr Dutton sidestepped TikTok trends and took aim at Labor’s housing and migration policy.

In his appeal to the kids, he said the platform was “supposed to be something fun, and I probably should say something that is or isn’t demure, but I really joined TikTok for one reason.”

“It’s to tell you that we do not have to live in a country where you spend your whole life renting,” he said.

@peter.duttonmp

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US commerce officials said features such as microphones, cameras and GPS tracking opened Americans up to foreign surveillance.

“The United States makes its own decisions,” Mr Albanese told reporters on Tuesday.

“Of course, we make our own decisions based upon our own advice.”

But he did not rule out a ban and said the government and security agencies were monitoring “all these things”.