Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's mobile phone number made available online (opens in new tab)

(abc.net.au)

21 pointsRileyJames5mo ago27 comments

27 comments

Albo Yet to Receive Single Phone Call After Number Leaked Online

~ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-sing...

  A crestfallen Anthony Albanese says he hasn’t received a single phone call, text, or even a cheeky meme, after his personal phone number was leaked online this week.

  “I honestly thought I’d be inundated,” the PM said at a press conference today, staring at his phone’s empty notifications screen. “Not even a scam text pretending to be Australia Post”.

  Albanese said he’d even logged into a website that requires two factor identification, just so he would receive at least one text message. “But they ended up sending me a code to my email address instead. My phone’s still empty”.

Simulacra5mo ago

That's hilarious, satire aside, would you call him?

I thought it would be very interesting if the public could submit questions to the Prime Minister during PMQ, and not just rely on their elected official. Make sure they are reasonable and professional, and ask him.

defrost5mo ago

I wouldn't call him, not unless he was swimming in my dam. No one deserves the out of band hassle.

He was on the Australian TV Q+A which had questions submitted by the general public, and it's not all that hard to get meaningful questions put forward in Parliamentary Question Time .. which is better for all as it goes on the record via Hansard.

* https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a...

* https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard

* House Question Time, 9 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8

1 more reply

tdeck5mo ago

TIL there is an Australian version of The Onion.

discordance5mo ago

We know Albanese is a loyal Qantas Frequent Flyer member [0], so this may be related to the recent Qantas breach -

“ Hackers release Qantas customers' data on dark web. The stolen data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers.“ [1]

0: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-alb...

1:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qanta...

mrkeen5mo ago

Australia still requires metadata collection and storage for all telcos and ISPs.

Remember the phrase "metadata isn't data"?

If it's your metadata, collection and storage is mandated. If it's their metadata, they send in the police to put a stop to it.

Simulacra5mo ago

I think this is sort of a broad-spectrum feeling among many of the elite, government, etc. They want to know everything about you, but how dare you question anything about them. I'm not talking about flight tracking, I think that's a different subject, but the lead attitude around information is a serious problem.

tjpnz5mo ago

>The mobile phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley and other prominent Australians have been made public on a free website.

>The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed.

How about getting the Prime Minister a new phone number instead?

zokier5mo ago

I feel the fundamental problem is the idea of phone number being secret or private in the first place. It is just very weak form of access control, I believe we can do much better these days.

jstummbillig5mo ago

How so?

CaptainOfCoit5mo ago

Besides being trivial to enumerate, every service and their mother is asking for a phone number, from physical stores/rentals/hotels who sometimes reject you if you say no, to the countless online services either asking for it or requiring it. I must have given away my phone number to hundreds if not thousands of entities after having it for more than 20 years.

1 more reply

cam_l5mo ago

>The story was first reported by Ette Media, whose co-founder Antoinette Lattouf also had her number published on the site.

I wondered if the ABC would acknowledge who broke this story. (Latouffe sued the ABC earlier this year for wrongful dismissal and won.)

They didn't link to her new media company though or the original story (other news sites did).

https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of...

kyahwill5mo ago

This reminds me of that simpson meme where basically you can just call upon Australia's prime minister

ChrisMarshallNY5mo ago

Oh dear... Ms. Streisand, is that you?

Ekaros5mo ago

Exactly why should not every elected person's full details including phone number and address be publicly available? If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate. Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say.

And allowing direct communication would increase transparency and improve how well democracy can work.

tjpnz5mo ago

Too many nutcases. You could be elected two seconds ago and there will already be a small line of people waiting to do you harm.

nutjob25mo ago

It's not practical, they'd just stop answering it and all you'd get is form responses. At least if we're talking heads of government or the like.

Local representatives is a different matter and I think some reps in Australia do give out their mobile numbers.

watwut5mo ago

> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate.

This is not true. There are quite a few people who love to harassed whoever they see as opposition. That includes harassment of loved ones of the politicians. So, that is why.

> Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say.

Nonsense. That is true in happy times and completely false in ... times like today.

scott_w5mo ago

> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate.

Some possible reasons:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Don...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_le...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi

I tried to choose a range of politicians to make my point.

cadamsdotcom5mo ago

> The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed.

As an Australian living in Australia, this reads as:

“We became so enraged that we formed a committee. We will be asking the government to let us nicely ask the criminals to nicely take down his number.”

The innocence is charming :)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

27 comments

defrost5mo ago

Albo Yet to Receive Single Phone Call After Number Leaked Online

~ https://theshovel.com.au/2025/10/14/albo-yet-to-receive-sing...

  A crestfallen Anthony Albanese says he hasn’t received a single phone call, text, or even a cheeky meme, after his personal phone number was leaked online this week.

  “I honestly thought I’d be inundated,” the PM said at a press conference today, staring at his phone’s empty notifications screen. “Not even a scam text pretending to be Australia Post”.

  Albanese said he’d even logged into a website that requires two factor identification, just so he would receive at least one text message. “But they ended up sending me a code to my email address instead. My phone’s still empty”.

Simulacra5mo ago

That's hilarious, satire aside, would you call him?

defrost5mo ago

I wouldn't call him, not unless he was swimming in my dam. No one deserves the out of band hassle.

* https://www.abc.net.au/about/media-centre/press-releases/q-a...

* https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard

* House Question Time, 9 October 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9mf2sMfe8

1 more reply

tdeck5mo ago

TIL there is an Australian version of The Onion.

discordance5mo ago

We know Albanese is a loyal Qantas Frequent Flyer member [0], so this may be related to the recent Qantas breach -

“ Hackers release Qantas customers' data on dark web. The stolen data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers.“ [1]

0: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/28/anthony-alb...

1:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-11/hackers-release-qanta...

mrkeen5mo ago

Australia still requires metadata collection and storage for all telcos and ISPs.

Remember the phrase "metadata isn't data"?

If it's your metadata, collection and storage is mandated. If it's their metadata, they send in the police to put a stop to it.

Simulacra5mo ago

tjpnz5mo ago

>The mobile phone numbers of Anthony Albanese, Sussan Ley and other prominent Australians have been made public on a free website.

>The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed.

How about getting the Prime Minister a new phone number instead?

zokier5mo ago

I feel the fundamental problem is the idea of phone number being secret or private in the first place. It is just very weak form of access control, I believe we can do much better these days.

jstummbillig5mo ago

How so?

CaptainOfCoit5mo ago

1 more reply

cam_l5mo ago

>The story was first reported by Ette Media, whose co-founder Antoinette Lattouf also had her number published on the site.

I wondered if the ABC would acknowledge who broke this story. (Latouffe sued the ABC earlier this year for wrongful dismissal and won.)

They didn't link to her new media company though or the original story (other news sites did).

https://www.ettemedia.com/exclusive-personal-phone-number-of...

kyahwill5mo ago

This reminds me of that simpson meme where basically you can just call upon Australia's prime minister

ChrisMarshallNY5mo ago

Oh dear... Ms. Streisand, is that you?

Ekaros5mo ago

And allowing direct communication would increase transparency and improve how well democracy can work.

tjpnz5mo ago

Too many nutcases. You could be elected two seconds ago and there will already be a small line of people waiting to do you harm.

nutjob25mo ago

It's not practical, they'd just stop answering it and all you'd get is form responses. At least if we're talking heads of government or the like.

Local representatives is a different matter and I think some reps in Australia do give out their mobile numbers.

watwut5mo ago

> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate.

This is not true. There are quite a few people who love to harassed whoever they see as opposition. That includes harassment of loved ones of the politicians. So, that is why.

> Honest man has nothing to fear as proverb say.

Nonsense. That is true in happy times and completely false in ... times like today.

scott_w5mo ago

> If they are doing nothing bad they have nothing to fear from electorate.

Some possible reasons:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Don...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_le...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Paul_Pelosi

I tried to choose a range of politicians to make my point.

cadamsdotcom5mo ago

> The Australian Federal Police is formally seeking to get the prime minister's number removed.

As an Australian living in Australia, this reads as:

“We became so enraged that we formed a committee. We will be asking the government to let us nicely ask the criminals to nicely take down his number.”

The innocence is charming :)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse