Labor ministers admit Dutton marriage meme is stupid and mean

Labor minister Jason Clare has joined campaign strategists across the political spectrum in condemning the meme cooked up by the Victorian Labor Party mocking the marriage of Peter Dutton and his wife, Kirilly, describing the Facebook post as stupid and unfair.

But state secretary Steve Staikos has defended the decision to upload the post to the party’s Facebook page on Monday, saying it was not designed to attack Dutton’s wife but to be a meme.

This argument did not wash with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who on Monday evening ordered the state branch to take down the post, which used a 2019 front-page photo of the couple with the caption, “Justifying dating your new partner to your friends who don’t like him”.

A five-year-old newspaper story about Kirilly and Peter Dutton has been used in a Labor attack ad.Credit: Facebook

The controversial post creates a headache for Albanese, as the party machine’s social media strategy is trialled ahead of the federal election that must be held in the next few months.

Bruce Hawker, co-founder of Labor lobbying firm Hawker Britton, said a successful campaign required proper structures for approval, overseen by a senior operator who exercised caution.

“The question needs to be asked: ‘Is it something that just offends common decency standards because it’s an incursion into the lives of others?’ ” he said.

“Dragging a wife who’s not a politician into the political fray [is inappropriate] and unfortunately some people just don’t get it and there can be a culture of groupthink that takes over.”

Staikos said the intention was never to attack Kirilly Dutton.

“It wasn’t supposed to be an attack on the wife of the opposition leader at all. It was supposed to be a meme,” he said.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and Clare, the education minister, condemned the post.

Bruce Hawker says a successful campaign requires proper structures for approval.Credit: Harrison Saragossi

“It’s mean and it’s dumb,” Shorten told The Nightly.

“There is no way Albo would approve of this … it steals the political oxygen from the government.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Clare said: “I think it was stupid and it was wrong, and I’m glad it’s been taken down. A family should be off-limits.

“We’re on the ballot paper, not our partners, and that’s why when the prime minister saw it, he demanded that it be ripped down, and I’m glad it has.”

Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan was also critical of the post, saying in a statement to The Australian: “The post has been removed – that’s appropriate. Families must be off-limits.”

The Dutton marriage meme is not the first time the Victorian branch of the Labor Party has stumbled in its social media messaging.

In 2016, then-Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was quizzed about his use of a Drake reference in a Facebook post and had to admit he did not really know the musician’s work.

“The best political leaders are the ones who really have a hand on the tiller and [are] making sure they’re privy to very important decisions and don’t just leave it to others to do,” Hawker said.

Redbridge’s director of corporate affairs and communications, Tony Barry, said the Dutton meme was a sign there was a lack of message discipline in the party.

“They don’t see him as a politician or even a human but as a caricature, and that’s a very dangerous situation for them if that’s a sentiment shared by the broader Labor campaign machine,” he said.

“This points to the fact that they don’t seem to have landed a negative message, and they’re just using their personal biases and prejudices. That works in Brunswick and Glebe, but it confirms to those in outer suburbs that these guys don’t have any solutions to their problems.

“It’s just a general lack of message discipline, so something in the machine has broken down somewhere.”

Dutton on Monday tweeted his response to the post, pledging the party he led would not target Albanese’s fiancee, Jodie Haydon, as he demanded that Albanese respect his wife.

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson went further, accusing Labor of giving up on the cost-of-living crisis and instead focusing on personal smears.

Both former Liberal federal directors Brian Loughnane and Andrew Robb were baffled by Labor’s decision to post the meme.

“It was disgraceful. It’s a symptom of the appalling state of the Labor Party in Victoria,” Robb said.

“It’s about as low as you go, and I just hope that they learn a lesson and start to compete along the policies that people want to know about, not the garbage that they are touring around.”

Loughnane said he agreed with both Shorten and Dutton’s comments about the post and hoped Labor’s election strategies would improve.

“It’s worse than stupid, it’s juvenile game-playing that has no place in Australian politics,” he said.

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