Anthony Albanese simply untouchable as parliamentary egos battered

Anthony Albanese may have got across the line fair and square at May’s federal election but several questions were raised about his tryline crossing in a friendly touch football match on Tuesday.

Anthony Albanese dives for the tryline for NSW in the Parliamentary Friends of NRL game at Parliament House on Tuesday, despite being tagged by Sport Minister Anika Wells. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Anthony Albanese may have got across the line fair and square at May’s federal election but several questions were raised by red-faced Queensland MPs on whether the same could be said for his tryline crossing in a friendly touch football match on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister briefly appeared on the field in the Parliamentary Friends of NRL State of Origin clash between NSW and Queensland politicians outside Parliament House, but it was just long enough for him to take possession and sprint to the tryline.

As Albanese closed in, Sport Minister/Aged Care Minister Anika Wells stepped out from his left to tag him on the back.

Wells, who has a fight on her hands over the number of registered nurses Labor has flagged it will need for 24-hour coverage in all facilities, quipped that the referee who made the call had a bright future ahead of him: “We can all agree the referee who awarded the Prime Minister a try … is going to be the next governor-general based on that decision.”

Wells said she made the comments despite being in her new jobs for only a matter of weeks.

“Keeping in mind my position as a new minister, on the job for nine weeks, I will take this opportunity before I walk back into the office of the Prime Minister; I am the Minister of Sport and I love it,” she said.

“If it gets taken away from me based on this answer, so be it.”

The minister was asked by one journalist in a media conference on Tuesday afternoon how Albanese could be trusted to run the country if he could not be trusted on the footy field. Wells took the jab in her stride and joked back in reply that she was “reflecting on her remit to clean up sport”.

Despite the immediate backlash to his try, Albanese stood by it.

“Glad to help NSW win the 4th game of the State of Origin series at parliament,” the Prime Minister tweeted with a photo that seemed to capture the moment Wells tagged him. Not to be discouraged by the 3-1 loss, Wells ended her media conference declaring “glory to Queensland”.

While the egos of some parliamentarians were left bruised by the game, former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce seemed to battle a physical injury afterwards and was seen hobbling through parliament in the hours that followed.

As the Coalition landed a number of blows on Labor in question time, as it once more hounded the government on whether it could stand by its promise to cut electricity bills by $275, the former deputy prime minister rediscovered a grin and even a laugh as the major parties exchanged barbs from their new places in the house.

“I’m desperately telling people it’s a football injury and not gout,” Joyce told The Australian.

“My mind is 24 but my body is 55.”