Scott Morrison furious at Anthony Albanese’s ‘bullets’ attack

Scott Morrison has rejected as ‘twisted’ and ‘partisan’ Anthony Albanese’s claims he told the thousands of women protesters they were ‘lucky’ because in other countries they would have been shot.

A fired-up Scott Morrison clashed bitterly with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese during question time on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison has rejected as “twisted” and “partisan” Anthony Albanese’s claims he told the thousands of women protesters attending nationwide Justice rallies they were “lucky” because in other countries they would have been shot.

Forced to defend the comments, the Prime Minister said he was celebrating Australia’s dem­ocracy and right to protest when he informed parliament on Monday that “not far from here such marches even now are being met with bullets”.

The Opposition Leader asked Mr Morrison why he didn’t “listen to those who marched and take real action on gendered violence” instead of describing the protests — which the Prime Minister did not attend — as a “triumph”.

In a follow-up question, he asked if Mr Morrison regretted making the “bullets” remark on the second anniversary of the Christchurch massacre, in which 51 people were gunned down.

This triggered a furious response from the Prime Minister, who accused the Labor leader of making a “very unworthy and egregious slur”.

“What issue does the Leader of the Opposition have with celebrating democracy and the right to protest? What issue could he possibly have other than a twisted attempt to try and pervert what has been said in good faith in this place to celebrate the fact that Australians anywhere in this country can come and express their concerns?” Mr Morrison said.

“This demonstrates that on this issue the Leader of the Opposition does not act in good faith but on this issue, over many weeks now, has simply tried to twist this issue for his own partisan advantage. He is proving himself unworthy of the office he even holds now, let alone the one he seeks to take.”

Under sustained pressure over his refusal to commission an independent inquiry into a historical rape allegation against Attorney-General Christian Porter, who is on mental health leave and vehemently denies the accusation, Mr Morrison also declared Labor was trying to use a different rule for Mr Porter to the one used for former leader Bill Shorten when he was the subject of a rape allegation.

“The double standards the Labor Party are seeking to apply are simply quite galling,” he said.

Labor says there are clear differences, including that there was a 10-month police investigation into the allegation against Mr Shorten in which he was questioned. Mr Shorten has strongly denied the allegation against him.

Mr Porter has not been questioned because the woman making the allegation of rape in 1988 told police last year she did not want to pursue a formal statement a day before ­taking her life.

Mr Morrison also hit out at the opposition spokeswoman for women, Tanya Plibersek, and Labor Senate leader Penny Wong for failing to call out “misogynous and disgraceful attacks” by unions and GetUp against outgoing South Australian Liberal MP ­Nicolle Flint during the 2019 federal election campaign.

Ms Plibersek said she had not been aware of the treatment of Ms Flint by GetUp “until very recently” — a claim Ms Flint said was “hard to believe”.

“I ask the Leader of the Opposition, where was he and where was his predecessor, and where were all the senior Labor women, when the GetUp, Labor and union supporters chased, harassed and screamed at me everywhere I went in the lead-up to the 2019 election?” Ms Flint said.