‘Against the rules’: ScoMo’s bowlo blooper

Campaign Confidential: ScoMo bends the rules of bowling, Marise Payne debuts a brave new look, and the action suddenly heats up in Bennelong.

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ScoMo bowls ’em over

The PM plays Lawn Bowls with residents at the Living Gems Retirement Village in South Caboolture. Picture: Jason Edwards

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison wasn’t afraid to break the rules when playing a game lawn bowls with a group of retirees in Brisbane on Thursday. Mr Morrison failed to wow the crowd with his first throw, so he decided to “have another go” despite it being someone else’s turn — with one pensioner chiming in and telling the PM, “that’s against the rules”. Mr Morrison attempted several more unsuccessful throws before switching to the other side of the grounds – where he finally found his groove and was treated with a round of cheering and applause.

Shark out of water

Scott Morrison gets sharky at Redcliffe in front of Wayne Bennett. Picture: Jason Edwards

MR Morrison was in Brisbane to announce funding for the new NRL team, the Dolphins, but he’s a shark through and through. During an announcement with Dolphins executives, Mr Morrison suddenly said “Fins up” and made a shark gesture with his hands. Supercoach Wayne Bennett didn’t look too impressed - does he ever? - but it’s likely the Dolphins didn’t take offence, given the PM has pledged a $15m cash splash for the team’s new training centre.

A week’s a long time in Bennelong

Thursday morning: Josh Frydenberg and Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy visit Formula Chemicals in West Ryde. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

JOHN Howard’s old seat of Bennelong didn’t rate much of a mention in those endless “seats to watch this election” guides that were around not so long ago, and with good reason: despite the fact John Alexander is retiring as the local member, it’s held by the Liberals on a pretty comfortable margin of 6.9 per cent. But suddenly – and we mean suddenly – it’s in focus. On Thursday morning, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg got on the hustings with Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy in West Ryde, and in the afternoon, Labor leader Anthony Albanese jetted in to have coffee with voters and candidate Jerome Laxale at a Ryde cafe. We’re guessing some very hot polling has surfaced.

Thursday afternoon: Anthony Albanese and Labor candidate Jerome Laxale at Top Ryde City. Picture: Toby Zerna

Dai, another day

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone posted a video to Facebook of corflute vandalism in Fowler..

YESTERDAY Campaign Confidential brought you reports of corflute vandalism in the seat of Fowler; some disgruntled voter had gone on a rampage, mutilating the election posters of the independent candidate Dai Le, much to the outrage of her number one supporter, Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone. Now we’ve got a visual on an alleged culprit. Mr Carbone posted video to Facebook showing a woman apparently attacking Le’s posters again at Canley Heights on Wednesday night. “Gotcha! (We) will fine you for littering when we catch you,” the fair mayor wrote.

Lingo bingo thingo

Albo and ScoMo and the debate thingo. Picture: Jason Edwards / various sources / AFP

SCOTT Morrison and Anthony Albanese may have stuck to their cliche-ridden scripts during the first leaders’ debate on Wednesday night, and that’s a pity: some more obscure words would have been big payers for the punters playing word bingo at home. Online bookmaker Sportsbet was offering $1.91 if either candidate dropped the word “Hawaii” during the debate, and $1.33 if Katherine Deves’ name was mentioned, but sadly neither came up. More predictable words like “climate change” and “Solomon Islands” did get a run though, and did pay out for backers. Campaign Confidential hears Sportsbet will be offering word bingo odds when the leaders meet again, although here’s our hot tip: Albo will almost definitely use the word “missing”. He’s put it into high rotation lately, usually in reference to the Prime Minister, and he deployed it 12 times during a single press conference in Gilmore on Thursday. Is he missing a thesaurus?

Seat-gate

Angus Taylor (c) with Scott Morrison at Ferra Engineering, a defence manufacturing business in the electorate of Bonner. Picture: Jason Edwards

A LITTLE note to candidates: Campaign Confidential’s spies are everywhere. Literally everywhere. And they don’t miss anything. One of them was doing secret ops in the electorate of Longman on Thursday, and had this to report: “Energy minister Angus Taylor could not find the energy to put the toilet seat back down while at a visit with the Prime Minister on Thursday to Ferra Engineering.” And the reason our spy knew this? “I was the one behind him.” When we told our operative that we wanted to focus on the seats, this wasn’t quite what we had in mind, but we’ll take it.

Fashion-forward Foreign Minister

Marise Payne teamed her earpods with earrings in a recent Sky interview.

MEMO to Foreign Minister Marise Payne: when you wear your white airpods and gold earrings at the same time on live TV interviews, they look like the one ornament. Was this a statement? Not sure we’re feeling it.

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