Anthony Albanese has criticized Coalition political ads that mock his Italian surname, comparing them to schoolyard taunts.
Ahead of the federal election, Albanese addressed a crowd of 400 members of the Italian community at Sydney’s Marconi Club on Wednesday.
During the election campaign, the Coalition ran prominent ads featuring the opposition leader with a scowl and the slogan: “It won’t be easy under Albanese.”
“People my age and older in this room will know that at school people made fun of your name,” he told the crowd.
“My opponents think it’s still OK to make fun of someone’s name in their advertising, and that’s an issue they need to consider.”
Labor leader Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon arrive to meet members of the Italian community at the Marconi Club on Wednesday (pictured)
He also praised the Italian community for its contribution to Australia.
“People come to Australia to work hard, get ahead and provide a better life for their children and grandchildren, and there is no community that has done that more than the Italian community,” he said.
“When you work hard you should be able to get ahead… but right now, it’s hard to get ahead.”
Sydney’s south-west seat is in the electorate of Fowler, where Labor has parachuted into the shadow of Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally.
“It’s a great opportunity to give Fowler something they’ve never had before – a senior minister to represent them,” Ms Keneally said.
Albanese told the crowd (pictured) that liberals “think it’s OK” to make fun of his Italian name.
The Coalition has been running ads with the slogan based on Albanese’s name (pictured).
Asked last week what he thought about potentially being the first Australian prime minister with an Italian name, Albanese said it reflected modern Australia.
Speaking to the media in Gladstone, one journalist referred to former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s 1996 comment: “When you change the government, you change the country.”
‘You will be the first Italian Australian to win and Ed Husic will be the first Muslim Australian in cabinet. Have you thought about how that will change the country?
Albanese responded that he was “encouraged” by the support from Australians of foreign descent.
Anthony Albanese claimed Scott Morrison has an “allergy to the ABC” while speaking in Gladstone on Thursday (pictured)
“Members of the Italian community tell me they are voting Labor for the first time in their lives because they want an Australia that reflects modern Australia,” Mr Albanese said.
—I have a non-Anglo-Celtic name, as does our Senate leader. “I think it sends a message to multicultural Australia that anything can be achieved in this country.”
He also noted the string of popular prime ministers with foreign names, including Annastacia Palaszczuk in Queensland, former premier Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales and Steve Bracks of Victoria, of Lebanese descent.
“A guy called Peter Malinauskas just got elected in South Australia.”
“I think it’s a very positive thing.”
Albanese was born and raised in Sydney with his single mother Maryanne Ellery in public housing.
She had told him that his father had died in a car accident after they met abroad and got married, but when he was 15 she revealed a different story.
“We sat down one night just after dinner and I think it was very traumatic for her to tell me that that wasn’t actually the case, that my father could still be alive,” he previously told 7.30.
“She met him abroad, she got pregnant with me, she told him and he told her, basically, that he was engaged to someone from the city in Italy where he was from,” she said.
Maryanne had adopted her father’s name, wore engagement and wedding rings, and Albanese believed it was because of the guilt she felt as a Catholic woman with a child out of wedlock in the 1960s.
Several decades later, after having her own son, she made the decision to track down her father with the help of Carnival Cruises boss Ann Sherry, whose company had purchased the cruise business through which they met.
A photo of the ship Fairsky, aboard which Anthony Albanese’s parents, Carlo Albanese (top left) and Maryanne Ellery (bottom right), met during a voyage between Sydney and London.
He eventually met his father in the Italian town of Barletta and discovered that he had a half-brother and a sister.
“The doorbell rang… and the door opened, he came in, opened his arms to me and we hugged.”
Since then, he has returned to Italy on several occasions to join his extended Italian family.
Albanese’s father, Carlo, died in 2014.