Faced with headlines of the kind that have resulted in British politicians clearing their desks, the Australian Labor leader Kevin Rudd has played down his drunken visit to a New York strip club as the kind of mistake men make. Most Australians – including, surprisingly, his political rivals – seem to agree.

As Mr Rudd insisted that he had never claimed to be “Captain Perfect”, commentators suggested that Australians were in a mood to forgive the Leader of the Opposition – who is tipped for electoral victory this year – his 2003 escapade. His case was helped by disclosures from some of his political opponents that they, too, were no strangers to strip clubs.

Mr Rudd’s big night out at Scores strip club in Manhattan, at the invitation of the Editor of the New York Post, has come back to embarrass him just as he appears poised to end the decade-long reign of Australia’s conservative Prime Minister, John Howard.

A general election is expected to be held in October and Mr Rudd, a studious 49-year-old former diplomat and father of three who has portrayed himself as a devout Christian with conventional views, has been leading opinion polls for most of the year.

Mr Rudd has adopted what is known in Australia as the footballers’ defence: he admits going to the club while on an official visit to the UN headquarters in New York but maintains that he was so drunk that he had no recollection of what happened – although he has denied unsourced reports that he fondled a stripper. But while Mr Rudd has been steeling himself for a drop in popularity due to the revelations, political forecasts indicated that the electorate would be prepared to overlook this lapse by a leader whose sober habits border on the tedious.

There was only muted criticism of Mr Rudd’s actions, while his rivals even defended him. Mr Howard’s Minister for Defence, Brendan Nelson, said that he visited a strip club almost 30 years ago.

“I suspect that there are many Australian men and an increasing number of women who have done so as well,” Dr Nelson said.

Another to admit seeing a strip show was Queensland’s leading female politician, the state’s deputy premier, Anna Bligh. She said: “I've seen a strippagram in a Chinese restaurant once – does that count?”

Mr Rudd later said that the admissions of others gave him no solace. He told reporters: “It’s caused me considerable embarrassment. And that’s the bottom line, I accept that.”

He added: “I have never tried to present myself as Captain Perfect – I’m not, never have been Captain Morality or anything like that. We all make mistakes and I’ve made one here.”

Mr Rudd also revealed that he had been admonished by his wife, Thérèse Rein, the multimillionaire founder and owner of a workers’ rehabilitation empire. Asked whether she had given him a telling off, Mr Rudd said: “Thérèse is a firm woman, we’ve been married a long time.”

Mr Howard refused to be drawn on the affair – a stance that may well be influenced by his inability to guarantee that government MPs have not committed similar or more spectacular indiscretions.

The Australian Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown, had the pithy last words yesterday: “Four years ago Kevin Rudd got drunk and took himself into a strip club. Four years ago John Howard, sober, took Australia into the Iraq war. I think the electorate can judge which one did the more harm.”

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