Source : the age
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the Labor candidate running against Peter Dutton as an “extraordinary Australian” after it emerged she tweeted faked images of the opposition leader wearing a Nazi uniform.
Albanese suggested many Australians had posted things they later regretted, as he declined to condemn Ali France, who is trying to unseat Dutton at the third successive election in the Brisbane seat of Dickson.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and WA Premier Roger Cook arrive for a press conference.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
He also got in a tangle about whether he had fallen off a stage in the first week of the campaign, conceding he had done so on Thursday morning before later growing tetchy when asked about the matter and appearing to walk back his admission.
First reported by news.com.au on Thursday morning, France in 2017 shared a post containing a doctored image depicting Dutton and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as Nazis, while in another post she suggested the Coalition planned cuts to NDIS to pay for AUKUS submarines.
“What [Dutton’s] saying here is that disabled people should fund the AUKUS submarines by going without essential support,” she said in the post.“And some say he’s not a monster!”
She branded Israel an “openly racist apartheid regime” in a separate post on X when it was Twitter.
Albanese has campaigned alongside France in Dickson, which Dutton holds on a margin of just 1.7 per cent, making it one of the most marginal seats in the country.
“Ali France is an extraordinary Australian and I don’t know what your tweets are like more than a decade ago,” Albanese said when asked about the unearthed tweets at a press conference in Perth.
Describing France, whose leg was amputated after a car accident, as an “outstanding human being”, Albanese said: “She’s someone who has overcome extraordinary adversity during this time.”
During an appearance at a breakfast event hosted The West Australian, Albanese was asked to name his worst event of the campaign so far.
Albanese initially denied he fell off the stage.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Probably falling off the stage,” Albanese replied, referring to a widely shared incident in Cessnock in the first week of the campaign.
His comments were a turnaround from his initial remarks after the event when he said: “I didn’t fall off the stage.”
The Coalition has used the denial in its election advertisements to question his character and portray Albanese as being loose with the truth.
Asked to expand on his comments at a subsequent press conference, Albanese snapped back: “It was a joke, chill out.”
He then went on to say “I didn’t fall on my backside” in a back and forth with a reporter before stating: “I stumbled. That’s what happened. I laughed about it at the time … it’s no big deal.”
In a statement, France said she had reflected on the posts.
