Albanese apologises for his cringe 'shag Kylie' podcast after women right across politics erupt

Anthony Albanese has apologised for telling a comedian he'd shag Kylie Minogue if his marriage went tits up, with the Prime Minister's office folding on Monday morning after three days of condemnation from women right across politics.

"I apologise unequivocally for the comments," the statement said, issued after his office was questioned over the remarks, The Australian reports.

The Prime Minister made the comments on Nova's Bush Deep podcast, recorded over whisky at The Lodge with comedian Nikki Osborne. Asked to pick between Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Rhonda Burchmore in a game of shag, marry or date, he tried "I've just got married, I'm only six months in", was pressed on what happens if it goes tits up, and answered:

"Oh, Kylie. Clearly. All of the above. She's terrific."

The full exchange, the bonking after the footy answer and how one Instagram DM got Osborne inside The Lodge are all in our full story on the episode.

Steggall, Henderson and Tankard Reist round on the Prime Minister

Warringah MP Zali Steggall didn't hold back:

"Entirely inappropriate for the Prime Minister to participate in such a game. He needs to learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist," she said.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the remarks were "disrespectful to women, embarrassing to Australians, and demean the office of Prime Minister", accusing him of "crude locker room talk" that makes a mockery of Labor's claim to be champions of women.

"Rather than politely decline to engage, Mr Albanese got into the gutter with his grubby remarks, which show extremely poor judgment at a time when trust in Labor is collapsing," Senator Henderson said. "How low can this Prime Minister go? Australians deserve better than this."

Senator Henderson had no criticism for the host, who she said had "cleverly skewered the Prime Minister".

Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist said politicians were "renowned" for evading questions, yet the Prime Minister played along anyway.

"It's beneath him as a man, as a leader of this country especially, and it sets a very bad example. The bar is already low and this has taken it even lower," she said.

A week after Labor voted down the definition of woman

The pile on carries an extra sting for Labor. Less than a week before the apology, Labor and the Greens voted down attempts by One Nation and the Coalition to restore the biological definition of sex to the Sex Discrimination Act, the law Julia Gillard admits deleting the word woman from.

Businesswoman Sall Grover said the timing told its own story.

"I think it's telling that as Albanese is dismissing women's sex-based rights as a 'culture war', he is being culturally repulsive by using the degradation of women seemingly to win 'cool guy' points," Ms Grover said. "If he wants to prove us wrong he can do the work to actually listen to women and put the accurate definition of women back in law."

Women's Forum Australia chief executive Rachael Wong said it was "not surprising that a Prime Minister who laughs off this sort of casual objectification has also shown little interest in fixing laws that are failing to protect the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls".

The apology lands on top of a Newspoll disaster

The backlash caught the Prime Minister at his weakest. Newspoll's quarterly state breakdown, published as the podcast aired, has two thirds of Queenslanders dissatisfied with him and One Nation ahead of Labor in the state.

Mr Albanese told Osborne that being opposition leader is "a crap job". This week he's getting a reminder that the other one has its moments too.