Ridiculous moment Anthony Albanese refuses to answer questions about his controversial pension scheme, telling Peter Dutton to ‘smile more’ instead
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton attacked the prime minister over pension changes
- Anthony Albanese mocked his ‘angry tirade’ and asked for ‘Happy Peter’
- Said it was no wonder NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet stayed away from him
Anthony Albanese has deflected questions about retirement by mocking Peter Dutton’s “angry diatribe” and telling him to campaign with Dominic Perrottet instead.
The prime minister was asked in question time whether he is sticking to his ‘we are not planning to make super changes’ statement from May 2 last year.
The opposition has relentlessly attacked Mr Albanese’s plan to cut tax breaks for Australians with superfunds of more than $3 million.
A poll showed two-thirds of voters support the changes, which would tax super contributions at 30 per cent for some 80,000 Australians instead of 15 per cent.
Mr. Albanese barely began to answer when Mr. Dutton interjected angrily that he was not answering the question.
“Again, more angry tirades. What happened to the smile? You would smile more, Peter! You would smile more!’ replied the prime minister.
‘What happened to Happy Peter?! Where did it go?! Where did it go? So much anger, so much vitriol.’
The House of Representatives turned into a rowdy mess as Speaker Milton Dick tried to control the chamber.
Mr Albanese insisted he was merely responding to the interjections, complaining that it was ‘difficult to respond when someone just yells non-stop from go to wee’.
Once he was able to continue, the Prime Minister sarcastically challenged Mr Dutton to reduce NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet’s re-election chances by campaigning against the pension changes.
“We are a government for all Australians. They form a government for half of one percent of Australians. And I encourage them to go to the wall for that one-half of a percent,” he said, referring to the 80,000 richest Australians.
“I encourage the Leader of the Opposition to go to the Liberal Party launch on Sunday and stand up and introduce Dominic Perrottet as the Prime Minister of NSW and say this is the hill they will die on .’
Mr Albanese ended Question Time with another comment on Mr Dutton on the NSW election on 25 March.
“It is no wonder that the Leader of the Opposition has not appeared with the NSW Prime Minister since October last year,” he said.
“There is a force field around the Prime Minister of NSW, he is very happy to appear with me, as is the Liberal Prime Minister of Tasmania, to get constructive action.”
Anthony Albanese deflected pension questions by mocking Peter Dutton’s ‘angry diatribe’ in parliament and suggesting he ‘smiled more’
Mr Albanese ended Question Time with another comment on Mr Dutton on the NSW election on March 25
The Prime Minister was pleased to point out that the last time Dutton missed a campaign launch was when the Victorian Liberals were easily defeated by Daniel Andrews on November 26.
“I say this to the leader of the opposition, don’t miss this Sunday. He missed the Victorian Liberal Party campaign and look where they got to with that,” he said.
Don’t make the same mistake twice, go out and support him. i will miss [the launch] but I encourage you to be there on Sunday to introduce Prime Minister Perrottet and I am sure it will be a very successful affair.’
Mr Dutton’s earlier interjections began when Mr Albanese used deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s question to boost his government’s performance.
“The member would be aware that the super changes we have announced will not take effect until 2025. That’s after – after the next election,” he said.
“But I thank the deputy leader for the opportunity to speak about the promises we made in the election and what we delivered.”