Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s push to woo voters in the battleground state of Queensland ahead of the next election went bush today.
The Labor leader stopped off at a dinosaur museum near the tiny outback town of Winton.
Unfortunately, this masthead wasn’t able to get a livestream or send a reporter to the prime minister’s press conference this morning in remote central west Queensland.
Winton, with an official population of 856 people, is 1153 kilometres from Brisbane and 177 kilometres north-west of Longreach.
But, thankfully, the prime minister’s office has just provided a transcript of Albanese’s brief doorstop at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum. He appeared alongside the museum’s executive chairman, David Elliott, who said it was “a bloody pleasure” to host Albanese, who can now claim the title of Australia’s first PM to visit the Winton museum since it opened about 20 years ago.
Elliott was named Australia’s Local Hero of the Year earlier in 2024 for founding the natural history museum and reviving the country’s palaeontology field after discovering a dinosaur fossil during routine sheep mustering in 1999.
Albanese gushed about western Queensland’s tourism attractions during his brief media appearance, citing a nearby Waltzing Matilda exhibition, the Qantas facility at Longreach, an art gallery in Cloncurry, and the world’s largest rodeo in Mount Isa as evidence of the region’s potential.
“I want to be the prime minister of the whole of Australia,” he said. “[I want] to make sure that I visit and talk with people from not just our capital cities and our regional towns, but the more remote places that make up this wonderful country – this best country on Earth.”
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A local journalist asked Albanese about recent allegations of misconduct within the CFMEU and questioned why there was delay in federal Labor taking action. The prime minister rejected that there was a delay.
“We have had very swift action,” Albanese said.
“We have announced administrators into all of the NSW, Victorian, Tasmanian, South Australian and Queensland branches off the CFMEU. Where we see corrupt conduct, we want it stamped out.”
Albanese will speak at a press conference in Townsville this hour and announce Labor’s candidate for the swing seat of Herbert.