Labor's Tanya Plibersek has apologised for comparing Peter Dutton to Lord Voldermort.
Speaking on 4BC Radio, the senior Labor politician suggested kids could be scared by the former Defence Minister and likely new leader of the Liberal Party.
"I think there will be a lot of children who have watched a lot of Harry Potter films who will be very frightened of what they are seeing on TV at night, that's for sure," she said.
When asked to clarify what she meant, she added: "I am saying he looks a bit like Voldemort and we will see whether he can do what he promised he would do when he was last running for leader, which is smile more."
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4BC Radio host Scott Emerson then said to Plibersek: “It sounds like you are attacking how he looks.”
To which she responded: “No, I am just saying he is not the warm and friendly face of the Liberal party and, if this last election taught us anything, it taught us that the Liberal party has moved too far to the extremes of politics.”
Following her comments, a spokesperson for Plibersek confirmed she had reached out to Dutton to ‘unreservedly’ apologise.
ABC News reports that newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Ms Plibersek apologised and said she made a ‘mistake’ by comparing Dutton to the Harry Potter villain.
"I do want to change the way that politics functions in this country," he said. "People do have conflict fatigue."
However, in true Taylor Swift fashion, Peter Dutton had decided to ‘Shake It Off’ and told 2GB radio that Ms Plibersek's remarks were ‘water off a duck’s back’.
But he insisted: "You read that sort of stuff online and it's sort of the sewer of Twitter… I just don't think you need to be nasty and mean."
Dutton also added that he was not 'bald by choice' and his hair loss resulted from a skin condition.
"I'm not the prettiest bloke on the block but I'm hopeful I'll be pretty effective," he added.
Despite Prime Minister Albanese condemning Plibersek’s comments while appearing on Sunrise, he shared that comments about appearance have been lobbed from the Liberal Party's side before.
He said: “There are a few comments made by the former Prime Minister about my appearance you might recall as part of the election campaign.
"We should not refer to people's appearance, let's discuss policy differences.”
Albanese added: “That's one of the ways that we can change the way that politics operates and Tanya has done the appropriate thing here.”
Topics: Australia
Charisa Bossinakis