Anthony Albanese lashes Greg Hunt over Liberal Party-branded COVID announcement

The Opposition Leader says Health Minister Greg Hunt attaching a Liberal party logo to a federal government COVID vaccine announcement is an ‘outrage’.

Greg Hunt and Michael Rowland clash in tense ABC TV interview.

Anthony Albanese has accused Health Minister Greg Hunt of breaching ministerial standards after he tweeted an image of a federal government announcement about COVID vaccines with the Liberal Party’s logo ­attached.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Hunt clashed with ABC presenter Michael Rowland on air after he accused the journalist of “identifying with the left” after he was asked why the logo was placed on a government announcement about the vaccines during an interview with News Breakfast.

Last week, Mr Hunt tweeted an image of the roughly 10 million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine that the government had secured with the Liberal logo ­superimposed on it.

“The vaccine is something that isn’t a Liberal Party vaccine,” the Opposition Leader said in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“If the Liberal Party is paying for vaccines, then they can post with Liberal Party logos on it. But if it’s the Australian taxpayer, then quite frankly it’s an abuse, it’s completely inappropriate and a breach of ministerial standards and it’s an outrage.”

Asked by Rowland why he placed the logo on the announcement, Mr Hunt said he “was elected under that banner” of the Liberal Party.

“I’m a very proud member of that party with a great heritage and tradition in Australia and that’s part of the Australian democratic process so overwhelmingly, we do these things as the Australian government,” he said.

After the fiery interview, Rowland used Twitter to defend his questioning of Mr Hunt and rejected the minister’s claim that he identified with the left.