Agro for Albo as campaign ends with hostile encounter
Kat Wong |
A rage-filled woman has accosted Anthony Albanese on mental health issues on the eve of the election, launching an expletive-laden tirade at the prime minister.
Anthony Albanese was met by voters and volunteers of all varieties as he visited one of the busiest pre-polling booths of the campaign trail.
He arrived at the southeast Melbourne suburb of Carrum Downs, in the electorate of Dunkley, to an antagonistic reception.
The booth was flanked by about 20 blue-clad coalition volunteers and three trucks emblazoned with the Liberal candidate’s face.
As Mr Albanese walked down the street, a woman went up for a handshake before launching into a diatribe on the federal government’s decision to cut Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions from 20 to 10 and his relationship with former Victorian premier Dan Andrews.
“Answer me mister prime minister, answer me you f***ing moron,” she yelled.
“Where’s the help for mental health? What about my teenaged daughter?
“No one gives a s***, thanks to your man Dan Andrews who ruined this state, your best mate – piece of s***.”
Later asked if she was a Liberal volunteer, she said “no comment”.
Despite the hubbub, some were glad to see the prime minister, with local Nicole Criddle asking for a photo.
“We’re so happy it’s you and not Dutton,” she said.
The seat of Dunkley, previously held by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, voted in her successor Jodie Belyea at a 2024 by-election and is held on a 6.8 per cent margin.
But that hasn’t stopped the Liberals throwing significant resources at the electorate before Australians take to the polls on Saturday.
It was the second time a campaign event was soured for the prime minister on Friday after local Liberal volunteers in the Tasmanian seat of Braddon pulled up with anti-Labor posters and tried to take the spotlight.
Rapping on their corflutes, they claimed Mr Albanese was telling “absolute lies” as he sat at the Devonport Banjo’s Bakery Cafe with a coffee and pastries.
The prime minister started the day on the offensive in Peter Dutton’s Brisbane-based electorate of Dickson.
Asked if he was trying to “play mind games”, Mr Albanese said he was “trying to win a seat” before expanding on the differences between himself and his opponent.
“We’re very different people,” he told reporters in Brisbane, alongside Labor’s Dickson candidate Ali France.
“Hope versus fear, optimism versus talking Australia down.
“My opponent is fearful of the present and petrified of the future.”
Mr Dutton has long fended off challengers and holds the north Brisbane suburban seat on a 1.7 per cent margin.
But Mr Albanese has maintained Labor could take the most marginal seat in Queensland from the coalition leader.
AAP
