Australia election 2022: Scott Morrison slams claims he’s mocking Anthony Albanese’s name

Scott Morrison has accused Anthony Albanese of hypocrisy for mocking Liberal senator Zed Seselja’s name and then complaining about the Coalition’s campaign slogan.

The Prime Minister branded the Labor leader “precious” and a “hypocrite” after claiming the slogan “it won’t be easy under Albanese” made a mockery of his name.

On Wednesday night, Albanese proclaimed the slogan in a speech to Italians at Sydney’s Marconi Club.

“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.”

Asked on Thursday whether he considered the slogan racist, the Labor leader said “no”, but added: “People in the Italian community have told me they are worried about it.”

The Prime Minister dismissed Albanese’s complaint and said using names in slogans is normal.

He told reporters in Tasmania: “I don’t accept Anthony’s accusation. I mean, at the last election, we had a campaign saying ‘the bill Labor can’t afford’.”

He then criticized his counterpart for mocking Pacific Minister Zed Seselja, who shares his name with the antagonist of the Hollywood film Pulp Fiction and has a Croatian surname.

“He’s being a bit hypocritical… He’s very happy to criticize me and abuse me, as he has done for the last three years, I’m old enough to accept that.”

“If you’re that valuable and you can’t hack a campaign, how the hell are you going to run this country?”

Senator Seselja’s name was mocked by Labor after the Solomon Islands signed a security deal with China last month and he was deployed to the Pacific nation.

In an interview with 2GB, Albanese said: ‘Australia’s response was not to send any serious delegation. They sent Senator Zed Seselja.

“Every time I hear Zed I think of Pulp Fiction.”