Anthony Albanese recalls ‘hardest job’ was cleaning pigeon poo

Anthony Albanese has revealed his hardest day of work outside of being a member of parliament involved being covered in pigeon poo.

Anthony Albanese has revealed his hardest day of work outside of being a member of parliament involved being covered in a decade’s worth of pigeon poo.

The Labor leader has campaigned against increasing casualisation rates in the lead up to the election – often bringing up the fact he worked at Pancakes on the Rocks when he was younger, along with McDonald’s when speaking about the issue.

When was asked about what his toughest day of work was on Thursday he first spoke about his time working on the night shift at the pancake restaurant.

“I gotta say there were days at Pancakes on the Rocks that were pretty tough,” Mr Albanese said.

“I worked the Saturday night 11pm to 7am shift on Sunday morning.

“And at times there were issues, not surprisingly at 3 or 4am in the morning.”

He said the job paid well.

“But to tell the truth, the pancake mix got into your skin.

“And people knew that you had worked for two or three days afterwards that you’d been there.”

But he said the toughest job he’d had was cleaning the wharves near the Sydney Theatre Company that had been abandoned at the time.

“We had to go in with high-powered hoses where there were really tall roofs,” he said.

“They hadn’t been used for a long time and we basically – I think back on it now, no occupational health and safety – we were hosing off pigeon poo probably decades old and it went all over us and it was a dreadful day.

“It went all over us and it was an absolutely dreadful day.

“We did get paid for it for three days work and it was it was a pretty tough job.”

Anthony Albanese, left, with Labor’s candidate for Hunter Dan Repacholi. Picture: Toby Zerna

After a rocky start to the six-week campaign, Mr Albanese was notably more upbeat on Thursday as he once again pitched Labor’s healthcare policies in the Labor-held seat of Hunter.

Mr Albanese stood alongside hand-picked candidate Daniel Repacholi – who is seeking to take over from retiring incumbent Joel Fitzgibbon – and outlined his plan for better healthcare in the region.

Mr Albanese was further touting the $135m urgent care program he unveiled on Wednesday, to create 50 clinics aiming to keep people out of emergency departments.

The first clinic would be built in Cessnock, he said.

Mr Albanese outlined Labor’s position on asylum seekers and boat turn backs. Picture: SKY NEWS

Mr Albanese used his press conference to outline Labor’s position on a number of other issues, including asylum seekers and boat turn backs.

The United Kingdom overnight had announced a five-year refugee resettlement deal and endorsement of boat turn backs.

The Labor leader was asked: “If people smugglers seek to take advantage of an incoming Labor government and send more boats, will you be tough on boat turn backs and will you consider an offshore resettlement deal’?”

“We will turn boats back,” Mr Albanese emphatically responded.

“Turning boats back means you don’t need offshore detention.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison hit out at Mr Albanese’s position on border protection at his own press conference, slamming him for having held “every position possible”.

“He has supported everything he has opposed, and he has opposed everything that he has supported,” Mr Morrison said.

“Anthony Albanese said that he could not ask someone to do something that he couldn’t do, and he was saying that meant boat turn backs.

“I designed the boat turn back policy. I implemented it. I stood up to criticism day after day after day.

“I stood firm on that policy … It worked.

“I’ll tell you who knows who I am, the people smugglers.”

Peter Dutton, who was live on radio when he heard Mr Albanese’s comments for the first time, said he was “stunned” that Labor would “change its position”.

The defence Minister labelled it a “significant watershed moment” for the Labor Party.

“I doubt that he said that,” he said at first, not seeming to believe 2GB’s Ray Hadley.

Mr Dutton said it would be a remarkable departure from Labor on the issue.

“If that’s what he has said, that is a weakening of the policy that even Julia Gillard had,” he said.

“If Anthony Albanese said that now, you would expect the people smugglers to be jumping for joy … in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and Vietnam because that’s actually a very dangerous statement he’s made this morning.

“He already doesn’t support temporary protection visas, which underpins the whole Operation Sovereign Borders. And the regional processing is a key element of the policy as well. You can’t just turn people around.

“I’m really stunned by that.”

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Originally published as Anthony Albanese recalls ‘hardest job’ was cleaning pigeon poo