Election 2022: Telling sign that cover-ups are vest left to experts

TEi Services in Townsville.

Here’s a free tip for political players – if you are trying to discreetly cover up something, don’t use an orange high-vis vest.

Scott Morrison’s staff had a go at hiding a sign that read “If you mess up, ‘Fess Up’ ” during his tour of TEi Services in Townsville on Tuesday.

The eagle eyes of the press pack caught the safety vest being placed precariously, askew and above head height, by one of the steel factory workers.

The sign being covered up, at the direction of the prime minister’s office.

Confessing your sins is hardly a sentiment the Prime Minister’s office would want displayed behind him for the cameras to capture.

Especially as the re-election of Emmanuel Macron has reignited probes about the French President’s “I don’t think, I know” claim to reporters that he was lied to over the abandoned $90m submarine deal.

(Fun fact: Tuesday marked six years since France won the bid to build our subs. Do you think Jean-Pierre’s Artisan Bakery in FNQ knew that when they asked the PM to make macaroons?)

This is the latest in a series of easily avoidable surprises for Team ScoMo on the trail.

Take the Rheem factory the Prime Minister toured to spruik his plan to create 1.3 million Aussie jobs. Turns out it is “restructuring” one-third of its workers to Vietnam. Whoops!

Then there was his run-in with 73-year-old pensioner Ray at the Edgeworth Tavern in Newcastle.

Diary understands the pub was given no notice of the PM’s appearance, or warning of the press pack that circles him recording every cough and criticism.

This paper’s own Liam Mendes visited the scene of the crime and said locals were not at all impressed with ScoMo’s “shocking pour” of a schooner. In fact, the manager even made a comment about ScoMo & Co leaving before they had settled their beer bill.

Scott Morrison.

You had one job

“You only hear about ‘advancing’ when there are f..k ups,” one seasoned campaigner complained.

There is a certain art to political advancing. Each leader has a number of specialised operatives who work behind the scenes to ­organise public appearances.

The staffers, or advancers, are sent ahead of the main media pack to make sure that when a leader is mixing with real Quiet Australians, there is nothing nasty lying in wait – such as a prominently placed sign for “tools”, a motorway “exit” marker, or possibly an obscuring of the letter “o” in the word “count”.

Think Tony Abbott outside The Reject Shop; Julia Gillard given a dead duck in a TAFE cooking class; and Malcolm Turnbull announcing a housing policy alongside a family that recently bought a property for their one-year-old daughter.

Malcolm Turnbull.

Kim from Canberra

Question without notice: which state or territory represents the residents of Norfolk Island?

Confusingly, the answer is the ACT. The external territory falls into the electorate of Bean, a safe Labor seat held by David Smith on a margin of 7.5 per cent, despite the tiny island – and we mean tiny at just 8km by 5km – sitting 1400km off the east coast of Byron Bay in the South Pacific.

Hence why independent ACT Senate candidate Kim Rubenstein spent the Anzac weekend campaigning among the mutiny on the Bounty descendants.

Rubenstein held a town hall for the 800-odd voters on the island and attended Australia’s earliest dawn service on the shores of Emily Bay lagoon, which has its own famous Lone Pine.

The two ACT Senate seats have never been won by someone outside the major parties. However, that could change this year, thanks to Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200. The cashed-up group is hedging its bets, backing both Rubenstein and former Wallaby David Pocock.

Hughes have thought it?

Labor has given up all pretence that it has a chance of winning the seat of Hughes from Craig Kelly or Cook from ScoMo. How do we know? It’s holding a combined fundraising dinner with special guest Chris Bowen at Gymea Tradies next Thursday.

The price? $45 a head.

This weekend, the campaign took me 1898km away from Canberra to the wonderful Norfolk Island 🇳🇫

Like we have seen the ACT, it is clear Norfolk Island has been taken for granted by the Government.

We need politicians who care about the specific needs of the community. #auspolpic.twitter.com/hDCxqUOqgf

— Kim Rubenstein (@Rubenstein_Kim1) April 25, 2022