Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull‘s recent appearances in support of Coalition candidates around the nation haven’t exactly gone to plan.
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While advocating for Brett Whiteley yesterday in the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, the PM was filmed committing the un-Australian act of eating a meat pie with knife and fork.
Today, things actually turned out quite a bit worse: a voter literally called bullshit on a candidate, right in front of their faces.
At a meet-and-greet ahead of Saturday’s by-election in the Queensland seat of Longman, Turnbull and Liberal candidate Trevor “Big Trev” Ruthenberg were confronted by several voters mad about Ruthenberg’s military honours.
Specifically, they voiced their anger over the time Ruthenberg claimed to have received the Australian service medal for his time as an engineer in the 38th Squadron of the Royal Australian Airforce. Those medals are typically handed out to those who engage in non-war activities – think UN peacekeeping missions.
Ruthenberg had actually been awarded an Australian defence medal, which is bestowed upon personnel after four years of service. He apologised for the error at the time, saying he unintentionally “screwed up”.
But at least two voters refused to take that on board. Video captured shared on Twitter by The Australian’s James Jefferey shows onlookers interrupt Turnbull and Ruthenberg.
“Hey Ruthenberg, where’s your medal?” one man called out. “Yeah, where’s your medal, mate? If you were a defence force person, you would know,” said another woman.
After shaking Turnbull’s hand, another woman directed her focus on Ruthenberg.
“What member of the defence department knows what medals they have, and what medals they don’t have?” she said.
“You had a medal that you did not deserve, should not have had, and you wore the damn thing,” she continued.
After Ruthenberg claimed he never actually wore it, the woman responded “bullshit. There’s a photo of you [wearing it].”
The recording makes Ruthenberg’s final comment hard to hear, but he appeared to say he’d love to see the photo in question. Turnbull then led him away.
When a meet ‘n’ greet goes awry pic.twitter.com/bShvF3yLlm
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) July 27, 2018
The Longman by-election in particular has been heralded as a massively important for both parties, and largely indicative of who voters believe should run the nation. If Ruthenberg takes the seat from Labor’s Susan Lamb, it will be the first time an opposition-held seat flips to a government-held one in nearly a century.
Whether that crucial vote is decided by three pissed-off punters on Bribie Island is yet to be seen.
