Anthony Albanese’s plate for Joko Widodo was a bargain buy
“On behalf of Labor, I purchased a ceramic artwork as a gift for you … to remind you of your support for our bushfire communities,” Anthony Albanese told Joko Widodo. The price of the present may surprise you.
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The plate Anthony Albanese gave Indonesia’s president as a present cost just $35.
The Labor leader unveiled his gift during a historic joint sitting of parliament in honour of Joko Widodo last week. It was bought during a visit to the bushfire-hit village of Mogo.
The price was revealed by the store’s owner Trent Harvey who said Mr Albanese and the group of Labor MPs told him they were looking for a gift for Mr Widodo and were trying to stick to a budget.
That they did, picking up the present for the equivalent of a couple of movie tickets.
“They were all really nice people,” Mr Harvey said.
Then, last Monday, during a speech to a joint sitting of parliament in honour of Mr Widodo, Mr Albanese explained his purchase in great detail.
The visit to Mogo had been a pit stop on the way to Batemans Bay for a Shadow Cabinet meeting, Mr Albanese said.
“There, in Mogo’s main street alongside coffee shops and other stores, was a store run by a local, Trent Harvey, who was working in Sydney and decided to move back to set up a small
business in Mogo. It is called Indo Direct. It has arts, furniture and every product imaginable imported from your great nation,” Mr Albanese said.
“Here it is: a town with a population of just over 300 demonstrating in a really practical way why increased trade is good for both our economies and both our peoples — in this case, Indonesia’s manufacturers and artisans and, on Australia’s side, our retail and tourism sectors.”
At this point, a Labor colleague pulled the plate from a brown paper bag under his frontbench seat.
“On behalf of Labor, I purchased a ceramic artwork as a gift for you — a small gift to remind you of your support for our bushfire communities,” Mr Albanese said.
“It is from your country but purchased in Mogo, a small town doing it tough. It’s not what you expect to run into when you’re in a small hamlet on the south coast.”
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