Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told a journalist to “chill out” after he was peppered with questions about falling off a stage earlier in the campaign.
Mr Albanese was asked on Thursday at a breakfast event in Perth hosted by Seven West Media to name the worst moment of the campaign, to which he replied: “Probably falling off the stage.”
The Prime Minister has previously vehemently denied that he had taken a tumble, insisting rather that he had “stepped back one step”.
Mr Albanese was grilled on the sudden shift in his description of the fall at a Labor campaign press conference later in the day, to which he scoffed at the question and insisted “it was a joke”.
But when the reporter attempted to press the matter further, Mr Albanese snapped back, saying “chill out, next question, chill out” and insisting he “did not fall”, contradicting his earlier statements.
The ongoing back and forth over the stumble has prompted the Coalition to accuse the Prime Minister of shirking accountability.
A reporter asked why it mattered whether the PM fell off or stepped off and asked what he thought about the Liberal party using the tumble as political fodder for their advertising campaigns.
“In 2022, you said during the campaign that you would always front up if you got things wrong – it’s become this huge thing that the Liberals are saying is emblematic of the way,” she said.
The Prime Minister interrupted and used the opportunity to criticise the Coalition.
“It says something about their character, frankly,” he said.
“I stepped off the stage. I didn’t fall over on my backside. I stumbled. That’s what happened.”
Mr Albanese was joined by Western Australian Premier Roger Cook in the newly-created seat of Bullwinkel, with the two announcing a re-elected Labor government would work with the state government to nationalise WA’s freight rail network.
The policy involves a $2.5 million investment into the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) and to undertake a due diligence and feasibility study with the WA government to re-acquire control parts of the freight rail network.
The Prime Minister said a Labor government would establish a $1.2 billion critical minerals strategic reserve if elected come May 3
The Reserve will be built through two new mechanisms, that being national offtake agreements which would allow the government to pursue voluntary contractual arrangements to acquire critical minerals from commercial projects and selective stockpiling of certain critical minerals.
However, almost all details regarding the reserve are still up in the air, with the government yet to choose which critical minerals will be stockpiled and the pricing mechanism also still in question.
