It is not every day a sitting prime minister gives a verdict on Marmite, but Anthony Albanese is an Australian, and for an Australian this is a matter of national pride. Asked about a Vegemite row playing out in Canada, the Australian PM backed his own country’s spread and dismissed the British one in a single word. Marmite, he said, was “rubbish”. He is, unsurprisingly, a Vegemite man.
Does Anthony Albanese like Marmite?
No. His exact words were: “I love Vegemite. It’s a good thing. I did hear the report on that. It’s rather odd that they’re letting Marmite in, which is rubbish, frankly.” That is about as clear as a national leader gets. It is also a very Australian position, since the Marmite versus Vegemite question is one of the friendlier fronts in the long rivalry between the two countries.
The Vegemite row he was talking about
A Toronto café run by an Australian had been told by Canadian food inspectors to pull thousands of dollars’ worth of Vegemite from its shelves over a regulatory technicality, while, as Albanese pointedly noted, Marmite was apparently allowed through. He used a press conference to say he stood with the Aussie café owner, and to make plain which spread he thought belonged on the shelf. The British and Australian press both had a field day with it.
Who is Anthony Albanese?
Anthony Norman Albanese was born on 2 March 1963 in Sydney and grew up in council housing, raised by a single mother, a background he often references. He rose through the Australian Labor Party to become its leader, and has served as Prime Minister of Australia since 2022. He is known for a plain-speaking, everyman style, which is exactly the register in which a leader calls a rival nation’s breakfast spread “rubbish” on the record.
Why it belongs on this list
Albanese is not British, and his loyalty is firmly to Vegemite, but that is rather the point. The Marmite versus Vegemite divide is its own version of love it or hate it, fought between people who grew up with one or the other. Having the Australian Prime Minister go on the record calling Marmite “rubbish” is a small diplomatic incident and about as authoritative as an entry in the hate column gets.
