Scott Morrison has doubled down on his criticism of Anthony Albanese’s makeover – as his opponents accuse him of hypocrisy for changing his own appearance.
The Prime Minister savaged the Labor leader last night by saying ‘I’m not pretending to be anyone else’ after Mr Albanese bought new clothes and glasses and lost 18kg.
Mr Morrison repeated the criticism in a press conference in Perth on Tuesday and defended his comments.
Scott Morrison (pictured on Tuesday in Perth) has doubled down on his criticism of Anthony Albanese’s makeover
‘Last night I was having a giggle at myself. I was talking about the fact that I hadn’t lost any weight, and I haven’t changed my glasses. And I’m still wearing the same suits,’ he said.
‘But, you know what glasses you wear… that doesn’t make you a Prime Minister. It’s being able to make the decisions to support our Defence Force, it’s about being able to make the decisions to be sure we keep our economy strong.’
However, Labor politicians argued that Mr Morrison was being hypocritical because he had in fact changed his glasses recently.
The PM wears different glasses in February 2021
Tim Watts MP shared a picture of Mr Morrison wearing different specs with black frames and called him ‘the fakest Prime Minister the country has ever had’.
Mr Watts also shared an article in The Australian noting that Mr Morrison celebrated his 53rd birthday last May with a ‘ManShake’ – a shake used for dieting – instead of cake.
In 2018 Daily Mail Australia reported how Mr Morrison had changed his diet after winning Liberal leadership and looked noticeably slimmer in just a few weeks.
Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen responded to Mr Morrison’s dig at Mr Albanese by tweeting a series of pictures showing the PM washing a woman’s hair, driving a truck and sitting in a plane cockpit.
‘Coming from a Prime Minister who’ll pretend to be anyone except the Prime Minister, this is unbelievable,’ he wrote.
Mr Morrison’s original comments came at a Sky News ‘town hall’ meeting with voters on the NSW Central Coast on Monday night, where told host Paul Murray: ‘I’m not pretending to be anyone else. I’m still wearing the same glasses.
‘Sadly, the same suits (too). I weigh about the same size and I don’t mind a bit of Italian cake either. I’m happy in my own skin, I’m not pretending to be anyone else.
‘And when you’re Prime Minister, you can’t pretend to be anyone else. You’ve got to know who you are, because if you don’t know who you are, then how are other people going to know?’
The Labor leader Anthony Albanese has shed 18kg and embraced a lifestyle transformation in recent months
Mr Morrison was treated to a round of applause for his revelation he still wore the same suits – but Nine political reporter Chris O’Keefe slammed the thinly-veiled attack on Mr Albanese.
‘That was a low go from the Prime Minister, that’s a bit schoolyard stuff,’ O’Keefe said on the Today Show on Tuesday morning.
‘Albo has lost 14 kilograms because he went on a health kick. Good luck to him. It’s called discipline. Isn’t that what you want from a prime minister?’
‘Are we really going to have a crack at someone’s appearance? It’s well beneath the Prime Minister of Australia.
‘If Scott Morrison wants to have a go at Albo, how about we ask what the hell is he going to do for us as Australians if we vote for him, because I still have no idea.
‘Australians aren’t going to cop that, that’s bullying.’
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten also weighed in, saying he believed Mr Morrison was ‘threatened’ by Mr Albanese.
‘The little green monster’s sitting on Mr Morrison’s shoulder and he’s a bit jealous of Albo,’ he told host Karl Stefanovic.
‘As for makeovers, I remember Mr Morrison before the last Federal election, you know what he seemed to get a new pair of glasses and did his best to do a makeover.
‘Albo’s match-fit and that’s what we want.’
Mr Albanese has proudly shown off his 18kg weight loss ahead of the upcoming election
Mr Albanese (pictured in 2013) has transformed his image ahead of this year’s election
Last week, Mr Albanese had vowed he wanted to govern like the late Bob Hawke who was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991.
‘We must rediscover the spirit of consensus that former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke used to bring together governments, trade unions, businesses and civil society around their shared aims of growth and job creation,’ Mr Albanese told the AFR Business Summit.
But Mr Morrison again took issue with the Opposition leader’s comments.
‘You can’t all of a sudden turn up at an election and say, ”Oh, I’m not that person I was for 20 years or 30 years” and all of a sudden pretend you’re everybody from John Howard, Bob Hawke or Kevin Rudd,’ he said.
Mr Albanese said in a Women’s Weekly article about his new transformation, that a car accident in January 2020 forced him to change his lifestyle.
‘I went alcohol-free for three months and cut down on carbs – potato, bread, pasta, and just increased my exercise as well,’ the federal Labor leader said.
‘But I haven’t tried to do anything too dramatic other than giving up alcohol.
‘I don’t drink during the week and have some wine on the weekends and the occasional beer, but I’ve just been cutting back.’
The Labor leader cut out carbs from his diet while undergoing his transformation
Meanwhile a Newspoll survey commissioned by The Australian found Mr Morrison was the least trustworthy Prime Minister that Australia has had for more than a decade.
Mr Albanese is similarly distrusted, reflecting a broad dissatisfaction with the major parties among Australian voters.
Only 40 per cent of survey respondents agreed with the description of Mr Morrison as trustworthy, while 44 per cent said they would describe Mr Albanese in those terms.
Quizzed on a broad range of the character traits for the Liberal and Labor leaders, voters said they still considered Mr Morrison the more decisive of the two.
He was also viewed as the more experienced, along with being the more arrogant, but lost out to Mr Albanese in every other area.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk