Selfies, hecklers and obscenities as Albanese risks a walk down the street

If anyone were keeping tally of how many selfies had been taken with leaders throughout the 2025 election campaign, Monday would have topped the chart.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kicked off his final week with a half-hour walk through the south-west Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, in one of the first public street walks done by either leader in this year’s campaign.

It was replete with all the elements his team would have hoped for: babies, smiling workers, admiring passers-by and plenty of smartphones hoping to capture evidence of the prime minister crowded inside a media pack.

Anthony Albanese was flooded with requests for selfies.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Both Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have steered clear of spontaneous visits to busy community centres while subject to tight security during this year’s election campaign as protesters and right-wing internet personalities gatecrashed early media appearances.

But they are ramping up their schedules in the campaign’s final days. Dutton plans to visit 28 electorates before polling day and Albanese hit the hustings in the Sydney seats of Bennelong, Banks and Fowler, after making his first visit to the Central Coast seat of Robertson earlier.

It was a change of pace for the prime minister, whose previous two weeks had been characterised by low-key community events and intermittent public holidays rather than frenetic criss-crossing of the country.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton swung into a cafe in Cottesloe, Perth, on April 12.Credit: James Brickwood

But he sprung into stride on Monday as dozens of onlookers orbited his walk through Cabramatta.

Albanese says he’s not complacent, but he certainly seems confident. He was warm with those who broke through the media pack to greet him; he happily obliged their photos; and he could not resist a jab at his opponent when he walked past Dutton Lane, a dead-end alley off Cabramatta’s main square.

“It goes too far to the right and it doesn’t lead you anywhere,” Albanese said.

But this joviality was not returned by everyone he encountered. A brief drop-in to a polling booth in the Liberal-held seat of Banks brought out some fury.

With the political spectrum represented – this masthead observed an on-the-ground presence from the Liberals, Labor, the Greens, Muslim Votes Matter, independents, Fatima Payman’s Australia’s Voice party and the Libertarians – it was, perhaps, predictable.

The prime minister was loudly heckled by Payman’s NSW Senate candidate, Emanie Darwiche, who said: “Anthony Albanese, you are committing genocide.“

Another man in a van driving past yelled out: “You’re the reason we’re broke, bro.“

A third heckler was in higher spirits. “Hey Albo,” they shouted from their car window, before using an expletive – “you sick c---” – to give the prime minister a very Australian compliment. Albanese, who was getting into the car at that moment, laughed loudly once inside – a sign that he was not offended.

The residents of Fowler were more upbeat – again, unsurprising, given the electorate was safe Labor territory for decades. That is, until the last election.

Labor hopes to regain Fowler from independent Dai Le. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Labor is hoping to regain Fowler from popular independent Dai Le, who picked it up in a backlash to the party’s attempt to parachute former NSW premier Kristina Keneally into the seat.

Albanese did his street walk on Monday with Labor hopeful Tu Le, the candidate overlooked in 2022 who is now contesting the seat.

Punters watching the media circus in the heart of the shopping area said Labor had been asserting its presence in the area ahead of next weekend’s poll.

Albanese, in his most public appearance of the campaign, certainly did.

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