Anthony Albanese is the 31st Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the Australian Labor Party. On the 3rd of December 2023 multiple media outlets published headlines with a quotation of Mr. Albanese being labelled a "beta male."
The quotation came from one Queensland voter who was part of a focus group conducted by RedBridge Group. The focus group questioned voters from the electorates of Brisbane, Griffith, Ryan, Sturt and Boothby.
The same Queenslander reportedly stated that Mr. Albanese was “not a leader, he’s a follower” and criticised the Prime Minister for his travels to other countries:
“I just don’t see a lot of action on cost-of-living pressures. He’s missing in action and now he’s running off overseas again.”
NSW One Nation MP, Tania Mihailuk, seconded the voter's sentiments, claiming that Mr. Albanese had “always” been a “beta male” and that he “doesn’t have any vision or any idea of what he wants to do in Australia.”
Other participants within the focus group labelled Mr. Albanese as “bland” and criticised him for his handling of the cost of living crisis:
“...he hasn’t really addressed cost of living and I get there’s global factors at play but I don’t think he’s done much concrete action on it.”
The focus group results follow a Newspoll in late November which found that 50% of Australians overall, and even higher percentages for renters and mortgage-holders, felt financially worse-off under the Labor government.
The same poll also reported that Labor’s primary vote had dropped to 31%, having fallen 4 points from the previous 3 weeks. In the same period, the Coalition’s primary vote had grown to 38%. Despite this, Mr. Albanese retained higher approval ratings than the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, as of December of 2023.