Malcolm Turnbull visits Longman ahead of by-election

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to a junior soccer match north of Brisbane this morning has been hijacked by a trio of anti-Adani protesters.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trevor Ruthenberg with a supporter at Caboolture today. Picture: Annette Dew

• LNP candidate ‘unfit for election’

A TRIO of young anti-Adani protestors ambushed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to a junior soccer match north of Brisbane this morning as he ramped up the campaign for next week’s crucial Longman by-election.

Mr Turnbull had just toured around a bank of junior matches at Caboolture and was walking to a press conference when two young women wearing anti-adani slogans and a man demanded that he “rule out the Adani Coal mine”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talks with anti-Adani protester Millie Anthony while campaigning in Caboolture this morning. Picture: Annette Dew

Mr Turnbull said the mine was of “enormous importance” but the future of the project was a “commerical matter for the owners”.

He did tell them the Government “had no plans to put any public finance” into the project and talked about the importance of coal for jobs and as the country’s second largest export.

But the protestors urged him to listen to young people who “want renewable energy rather than thermal coal in this country”.

“Jobs are in renewable energy not in thermal coal it’s a dying, structural decline industry we need to transition out of it,” one of the women said.

As a bevy of Mr Turnbull’s advisors tried to move the protestors away and push him towards the waiting press, the PM told the protestors it had been “great” to talk with them.

“Well you’ve just said listen to young people I have listened carefully but I think every time I’ve tried to answer your questions you’ve talked over the top of me so it’s important you … ,” he said, before he was drowned out by the protestors saying, “you’re not answering our questions” as they were shepherded away.

Mr Turnbull was in Longman to try and push the knife-edge by-election in favour of LNP candidate Trevor Ruthenberg who has been on the back foot all week after The Courier-Mail revealed he had falsely claimed to have received a military medal for overseas peacekeeping.

He claimed he had made an honest mistake in listing the Australian Service Medal instead of the Australian Defence Medal he was awarded for his more than four years’ of service in the RAAF.

Mr Turnbull backed him again today, repeating the line that “Big Trev” was as “honest as he is big” and tried to turn attention to Labor candidate Susan Lamb who was forced to resign from the Parliament after it was revealed she was a dual citizen despite claiming for months that she wasn’t.