Tanya Plibersek apologises ‘unreservedly’ for comparing Peter Dutton to Voldemort

Anthony Albanese has said Tanya Plibersek made a “mistake” likening Peter Dutton to the Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort – a jibe for which the Labor frontbencher has “unreservedly” apologised.

Dutton will stand unopposed to be Liberal leader and opposition leader. In a statement released overnight, the Queensland MP confirmed he would nominate, saying he wanted to show Australians “the rest of my character, the side my family, friends and colleagues see”, after a political career that has seen him defined as a hard man through his roles as home affairs and defence minister.

In a 4BC radio interview on Wednesday, Plibersek – Labor’s education spokesperson – said: “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.”

When asked what she meant, Plibersek said: “I am saying he looks a bit like Voldemort. We will see whether he can do what he promised he would do when he was last running for leader, which is smile more.”

The radio host, Scott Emerson, said: “It sounds like you are attacking how he looks.”

Plibersek replied: “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.”

A spokesperson for Plibersek said she had reached out to Dutton soon after the interview to “unreservedly” apologise, saying she should not have made the remark.

Dutton labelled the comments “unfortunate” but said they were “water off a duck’s back”. “I don’t think you need to be nasty and mean,” he told 2GB radio on Thursday. “I’m not the prettiest bloke on the block but I hope that I’m going to be pretty effective.”

Dutton said he was “not bald by choice” noting he had been diagnosed with a skin condition several years ago. He said people should criticise politicians for their policies and decisions “but when you are going for personal characteristics that’s a different story”.

In TV interviews on Thursday, the prime minister welcomed Plibersek’s apology.

“She apologised,” Albanese told the ABC.

“It was a mistake. It shouldn’t have been said, we all make mistakes from time to time. What we need to do is to move on from them and it is how we respond to them. Tanya Plibersek responded appropriately. Tanya Plibersek did the right thing by apologising.”

Albanese also noted that Scott Morrison had routinely commented on his glasses and weight loss.

“I want to change the way that politics operates,” he said. “You would have seen … Scott Morrison had a whole show that seemed to be devoted to an analysis of my glasses or whether I lost weight or what I look like. We can do better than that.

“Let’s actually talk about the issues and let’s try to find some common interest going forward.”

In a Seven Network interview, Albanese said: “We should not refer to people’s appearance.”