‘Dumb and mean’: Bill Shorten slams social media post by Victorian Labor Party attacking Peter Dutton’s wife

Cabinet Minister Bill Shorten says a social media post distributed by the Victorian Labor Party attacking Peter Dutton’s wife was “dumb and mean.”

The former party leader’s stance is the strongest condemnation of the post targeting the opposition leader’s wife Kirrily Dutton, by a Labor figure to date.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not personally commented on the post.

But his spokeswoman said late on Monday night that he had demanded it be removed as soon as it was drawn to his attention.

“Families should be off limits,” the spokeswoman said.

The graphic, which was first posted by the Victorian Labor Party’s Facebook page around 11am, was removed around 8pm following interventions by senior Labor figures.

“It wasn’t meant to be an attack on the opposition leader’s wife, it was just a funny meme,” Victorian Labor State Secretary Steve Staikos told The Nightly when contacted.

But when approached for comment, Bill Shorten who led the Labor party between 2013 and 2019 and is retiring from politics this election took a tough stance.

“It’s mean and it’s dumb,” Mr Shorten said and added that it was “juvenile.”

“There is no way Albo would approve of this,” he said.

“It steals the political oxygen from the government.”

One left-wing strategist also privately doubted that the personal attack would even work as targeting politicians’ families was a turn-off for voters.

The post in question featured a copy of a newspaper article with a photo of Mr and Mrs Dutton with the quote of Mrs Dutton saying: “He is not a monster.”

The Victorian Labor Party’s post captioned the quote: “Justifying dating your new partner to your friends who don’t like him” and We all know that one couple”.

Kirrily Dutton’s full quote from the 2019 interview with The Courier Mail was: “He is a really good man. He is a really good father and he’s not a monster.”

Opposition frontbencher James Paterson kicked off the backlash just after midday when he demanded the Prime Minister state whether he endorsed the content.

Mr Albanese’s office did not respond to media requests throughout the day.

Around 7pm Mr Dutton waded in.

The opposition leader said on X that he would not sanction attacks on Mr Albanese’s fiance Jodie Hayden and urged the PM to do the same.

“I can assure you the Liberal Party I lead will not be targeting Jodie Hayden,” Mr Dutton said.

“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.”

The Facebook post was removed around one hour later around the same time the Prime Minister’s spokeswoman told the media that “when the tweet was drawn to his attention, the Prime Minister demanded it be taken down.”

Mr Albanese’s official social media account posted a collage of his greatest achievements in 2024 during the day.