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Scott Morrison has stumbled during his election campaign by mistakenly referring to a journalist as ‘Mr Speaker’ three times while answering their question.
The Prime Minister made the gaffe during a press conference on Easter Sunday when he was asked who the next social services minister would be if re-elected.
In his response, Mr Morrison appeared to forget that he wasn’t in Parliament as he awkwardly addressed the reporter as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Scott Morrison (pictured) has stumbled in his pre-election trail when he mistakenly referred to a journalist as ‘Mr Speaker’ three times while answering their question.
The questions came about after Mr Morrison promoted the current social services minister, Anne Ruston, to the position of health minister following Greg Hunt’s resignation.
‘Of course Mr Speaker, all of these, foreign affairs, very important portfolios,’ he said.
The Prime Minister, unaware of the blunder, continued his attempt to deflect questions about who the next social services minister would be.
‘I’ve been the social services minister, so I know that better than anyone. But I’m not going to get into the process of doing a full cabinet reshuffle in the middle of the election. I don’t think that is appropriate.
‘I think the health minister’s role, particularly in the middle of a pandemic; it is entirely appropriate, with the retirement of an outstanding health minister, that we come forward to nominate who that health minister would be if we were elected.’
He then referred to the same journalist as ‘Mr Speaker’ again – twice.
‘And the issue, Mr Speaker…Mr Speaker,’ Mr Morrison stumbled before joking: ‘There we go, I’m back in Parliament!’
Mr Morrison appeared to forget that he wasn’t in Parliament when he awkwardly addressed the reporter as the Speaker of the House of Representatives
At a press conference for the 2018 Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister (right), who was joined by Liberal MP and Wentworth candidate Dave Sharma (left of Morrison), called a reporter ‘Mr Speaker’ during his speech
It is not the first time Scott Morrison has clumsily addressed a journalist as ‘Mr Speaker’.
At a press conference for the 2018 Wentworth by-election, the Prime Minister, who was joined by Liberal MP and Wentworth candidate Dave Sharma, called a reporter ‘Mr Speaker’ during his speech.
‘I accept and understand that anger and that outrage, Mr Speaker,’ he said before he was interrupted by a heckling bystander standing next to the press.
Scott Morrison’s pre-election blunder comes after his opponent, Anthony Albanese, also had an embarrassing gaffe just six days earlier.
Mr Albanese (pictured) was asked what Australia’s unemployment rate and Reserve Bank cash rate were – both of which he couldn’t answer – during a press conferences held on the first full day of the election campaign last Monday
During a press conference in Tasmania on Monday, the Labor leader was unable to answer what the Reserve Bank cash rate was before he then wrongly guessed the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent when it’s actually 4 per cent.
Journalists quizzed Mr Albanese on the figures at the conference in the marginal seat of Bass in northern Tasmania, a day after the election was called.
The cash rate has been at a historic low of 0.1 per cent since November 2020 while the unemployment rate is four per cent, the lowest since 2008.
In an effort to prove to voters he was willing to take responsibility for his mistakes, the opposition leader fronted reporters again to make amends for the error.
‘I’m human. But when I make a mistake, I will fess up to it and I will set about correcting that mistake,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘I won’t blame someone else, I will take responsibility.’
Source: DailyMail
