Federal election campaigns are not quite as dry as Weetbix sandwiches, but you’d you’d hardly invite your mates around to watch the highlights over a beer.
But the six-week festival of political pleading can produce a few memorable moments between the long-winded explanations of why you should vote for one of the 1,624 candidates.
Who could forget Mark Latham’s aggro handshake with John Howard in 2004? Less well known but even stranger was Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz’s six point plan to stop the boats in 2013 that had only one point.
Then there was the shocking moment would-be One Nation candidate Mark Ellis was forced to deny kidnapping three children in a forgettable ‘ask-me-anything’ discussion in 2017.
These are some of the strangest moments from the 2022 campaign since it kicked off on April 10, and a few from the weeks before when the country was campaigning in all but name.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese suffered a few gaffes on the campaign trail in an election that has produced no shortage of bizarre moments
All was not weld for the Scott Morrison
Scott Morrison is known for his love of a good photo opportunity and with a likely poll date in mind, he ramped up his photo ops in early 2022.
To be fair it’d be hard to do them all perfectly.
The PM’s ukulele rendition of the classic song April Sun in Cuba upset music fans, while footage of his accidental crash tackle on a child while playing soccer will be replayed for years.
But the pick of his awkward moments had to be his welding mishap at an Alice Springs factory.
The Prime Minister donned PPE including a safety visor during a visit to a workshop in Alice Springs but lifted the mask as he touched the blazing arc of a welding torch to a metal beam
Poll
Who would you rather have a beer with?
Who would you rather have a beer with?
Scott Morrison29 votes
Anthony Albanese31 votes
Now share your opinion
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He lifted his protective helmet moments before he touched the blazing arc of the welding torch to a metal beam on video, prompting tradies across the country to scream ‘safety breach!’.
Mr Morrison’s defensive response to his stuff up was: ‘So if people want to have a chip at me because I’m not a good welder, well, that’s not my day job.’
‘If all the narcs in the bubble want to have a crack at me, well, they can. But what I’m doing is showcasing the great work of our apprentices and small businesses.’
Australians have reacted in horror after Scott Morrison posted a photo of his family curry night, with social media users pointing out the ‘chicken is still raw’
Mr Morrison’s dodgy curry post
The prime minister talking up his curry and economy in the same Facebook post has to go down as one of the most random pieces of electioneering in Australian history.
Mr Morrison regularly posted his South Asian cooking adventures on his social media pages, where opinions on his culinary prowess were divisive.
But one creation had many Australians in uproar when some of the chicken in a traditional Sri Lankan meal looked raw.
The tamarind eggplant and okra dish alongside steamed rice and a classic chicken korma with the cheeky caption: ‘Strong Curry. Strong Economy. Stronger Future.’
But eagle-eyed commenters said his family are also going to need ‘strong stomachs’ with a portion of the chicken korma appearing dangerously undercooked.
Mr Morrison later insisted: ‘I can assure you, the chicken was cooked.’
An Italian porn cartoonist whose twitter handle is @albo has been tagged countless times in recent years by people mistaking him for Anthony Albanese.
The erotic cartoonist who offered Anthony Albanese his services
An Italian porn cartoonist whose twitter handle is @albo has been tagged countless times in recent years by people mistaking him for Anthony Albanese.
Its only increased during the election, with people failing again and again to write the Labor leader’s handle correctly – @AlboMP.
When he w
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Police spoke to the cavemen but left the scene as they weren’t causing any problems
Cavemen’s political point goes extinct
Award for the poorest preparation in a campaign stunt would have gone to three ‘cavemen’ who attempted to make a point to Mr Morrison at Perth that they refused to explain and nobody understood.
The prime minister’s public appearance at a Bunnings took a bizarre turn as it was interrupted by protesters dressed as prehistoric humans.
Mr Morrison arrived in the seat of Cowan to speak with locals but instead he was met by three men wearing dresses and ok google configurar mi dispositivo wielding clubs who could only say ‘ooga booga’.
The three cavemen are believed to have worn the costumes in reference to Mr Morrison calling Western Australians ‘cave people’ for keeping the border closed during the Covid pandemic.
The grunting trio left the scene after being confronted by police.
Scott Morrison saw a public appearance at a Perth Bunnings interrupted by protesters dressed as cavemen
One Nation ghost candidates
One of the stranger stories from the election was the non-appearance of so-called ‘ghost’ One Nation candidates.
Narelle Seymour, standing in the seat of Hughes, in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, wasn’t seen in two months of campaigning and later said to actually live 450km away in Wagga Wagga.
Up to 12 of the party’s candidates were said to live outside the electorate they are standing in.
Tracey Bell-Henselin, who lives in Queensland but is registered as the One Nation candidate for Richmond in northern NSW, was another.
She failed to appear at a meet-the-candidates event and her profile still hadn’t appeared on the party’s website two days out from the poll.
The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed there is no legal requirement for candidates to live in the same electorate but acknowledged most voters would reasonably expect a local to represent them.
Malcolm Heffernan, right, is pictured with former senator Fraser Anning – he stood as a candidate for Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party in the WA seat of Canning at the 2019 Federal election
Mr Palmer announced during his speech a populist policy to cap home loan interest rates at three per cent for the next five years
Clive Palmer blames invisible protester for his tumble
Billionaire mining tycoon turned politician Clive Palmer thought he was tackled by a protester when he fell off a stage on April 16 and hit his head.
Mr Palmer, 68, was knocked out in the fall at a rehearsal for his United Australia Party campaign launch at his Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast.
First-aid was administered and he was taken to hospital and later discharged, after a brain scan, with a nasty egg on his head but thankfully recovered.
‘It took me back to when I played for Southport Tigers rugby league… When I came to I looked around to see who’d tackled me,’ Palmer later said.
In extraordinary scenes, the woman (pictured right) crushed an egg on the back of Mr Kelly’s head before declaring he was a ‘Nazi lover’ and a ‘piece of s*it’
Craig Kelly’s ‘high calibre’ people
The revelation that more than 10 per cent of United Australia Party candidates have faced court in the past, or face ongoing matters may have raised eyebrows but it didn’t bother the party’s number two, Craig Kelly.
‘These are at least some of the highest-calibre people I’ve met in my life,’ when asked about the character of the party’s candidates, Mr Kelly told on May 18.
One is Blaxland candidate Elvis Sinosic, former UFC fighter and anti-lockdown warrior, who was charged with possessio of a knife in a public place in 2021.
Another is Adam Jannis, who was on a stalking and intimidation charge in 2014. he was convicted and sentenced to a good behaviour bond.
Kelly himself was egged on the campaign trail by a woman who repeatedly yelled at him to ‘stop hanging out with Nazis’.
To Kelly’s credit, he responded in a relatively civilised manner.
In case you’re wondering, the rough percentage of the population who have committed a crime is about two per cent, according to ABS data.
The timing by Family Voice to name Pauline Hanson ‘mother of the year’ in the middle of an election campaign was a bit weird
Pauline – Mother of the year
Nobody is doubting Pauline Hanson is a good mum to her four children, but the timing by Family Voice to name her ‘mother of the year’ in the middle of an election campaign was a bit weird.
Plus, Hanson didn’t even know she’s been nominated.
Hanson, now 67, has been responsible for a glittering line-up of memorable and infamous moments in Australian political history but in the 2022 campaign at least, she was relatively quiet.
