My, my, how the tables turn… was it really only just a few months ago that opposition leader Anthony Albanese was sitting smugly on the sidelines, sniping at Prime Minister Scott Morrison for being overseas during a disaster, and only returning to stage photo opportunities in the disaster area?
Remember Albanese smirking that “I won’t go missing when the going gets tough, or pose for photos and then disappear when there’s a job to be done”?
Fast forward a few months and, as prime minister, Albanese has spent more time overseas than in Australia. On his very first day in office, he jetted off to Japan. Then Indonesia. Quickly followed by Spain, France and Ukraine. Fiji is next on his jet-setting itinerary.
Oh, but he has briefly flitted back to Australia… to pose for photos.
Less than an hour ago Mr Albanese’s social media channels released footage of him boarding a helicopter out the front of Sydney’s ACCOR stadium, as he prepared to visit the Windsor and Hawkesbury areas and other nearby flood-affected regions throughout the day.
Flood-affected residents are less than impressed.
Anthony Albanese has been confronted by a man frustrated by government inaction on repeated flooding, with the exchange caught on tape.
The Prime Minister was visiting a volunteer emergency relief shelter on Wednesday afternoon when Windsor resident Scott Hicks approached him and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.
As a former volunteer firefighter, I know from experience what a pain in the arse politicians doing photo-op tours really are. Everything stops and everyone stands around like a shag on a rock, waiting for some dickhead in an Akubra with the price tag still swinging off it to rock up in their helicopter or Range Rover, with a press corps in tow.
But Albanese’ enthusiasm for being anywhere but Australia has come back to bite him on the arse badly, less than two months into the job. Clearly feeling the sting of “WheresAlbo” trending on Twitter, Albanese has apparently decided that the best defence is offence.
Anthony Albanese has blasted critics of his recent overseas travel, saying comparing it to a holiday is “beneath contempt”.
The Prime Minister has been repeatedly criticised by the Coalition for not returning from talks in Europe or calling NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet sooner as the flood crisis unfolded in NSW […]
On Tuesday, Nationals leader David Littleproud lashed the Prime Minister for his globetrotting, insisting Labor was “quick to throw a few grenades at Scott Morrison” for going on holiday to Hawaii during the black summer bushfires.
So he went on holiday to Europe, instead. And flocked to the world’s no. 1 photo-op destination for preening celebrities and press-hungry politicians.
“I was fulfilling a responsibility that I believe that I had of travelling to Ukraine,” he said.
The Australian
What “responsibility”?
Explaining, as BFD writer Cam likes to say, is losing.
