Advertisement
Anthony Albanese has taken a tumble off stage in an embarrassing campaign trail incident. The Prime Minister had been trying to pose for a photo after he was given a lifetime achievement award at a Mining and Energy Union conference at Lovedale, in the Hunter Valley on Thursday afternoon when he fell off the back of a one-metre-high stage.
He was hauled back to his feet with the help of three people – but not before the slip-up could be captured by the waiting media. The Labor leader was all smiles once he was back on two feet, raising both hands to signal to the cheering audience to indicate that he was okay. He suffered no injuries.
In a subsequent interview with ABC Newcastle, Mr Albanese tried to claim he had not, in fact, fallen from the stage. ‘I stepped back one step. I didn’t fall off the stage,’ he said. The journalist told him it looked like he had fallen. ‘Just one leg went down, but I was sweet,’ the PM added.
He will no doubt be smarting from the blunder. It marks the first major misstep for the Prime Minister on the campaign trail that will dominate the imagery of today’s campaigning.
Last election, he tripped up on the first day of the campaign when he could not name the cash rate. His legions of advisers will no doubt have their heads in their hands, especially given it has widely been thought that the Prime Minister was enjoying a strong start to the campaign. It comes just hours after he was heckled by two screaming women.
The Prime Minister was speaking at the Maitland Hospital in the marginal Labor-held seat of Paterson in NSW on Thursday afternoon when two women started yelling at him. Mr Albanese had just said ‘we support the coal industry’ when the voices of two women stunned him into silence. One woman, out of shot, could be heard shouting: ‘Mr Albanese, why has your government approved 33 new fossil fuel projects six times since you’ve come to power?’
The cameras then panned round and captured a woman being dragged away as she tearfully shouted at the PM and pointed her finger. ‘Mr Albanese, why have you approved 33 new coal and gas companies,’ she screamed. ‘This is my future on the line! I want to stay close to raise my children.’
It’s understood the women, who were wearing press lanyards, had posed as journalists to get close to the Prime Minister. Mr Albanese later said the woman’s actions were ‘entirely inappropriate’. ‘I think that people screaming in a hospital ward says more about them than advancing their cause,’ the PM told ABC radio in Newcastle.
Want more stories like this from the Daily Mail? Hit the follow button above for more of the news you need.