Two environmental activists on Wednesday heckled Australia’s left-wing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, interrupting his speech at an event in Melbourne.
The incident occurred at the Future Victoria Summit, a one-day event by the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Herald-Sun newspaper. Sky News Australia chief anchor Kieran Gilbert served as the event’s host.
Sky News reports Albanese had just started his speech when he was interrupted by a young man who yelled at him over gas companies. Footage of the incident published by local outlets show the young man holding a small sign that read, “No new coal or gas.”
“You’re burning my future. You’re burning young people’s futures,” the young activist yelled at Albanese as he was being taken away by security.
Moments later, Albanese was interrupted a second time by a woman who stood up near a table and demanded the prime minister legislates “to end fossil fuel.”
“No more coal and gas, no more coal and gas,” the woman yelled as she was taken out of the room. She also held a sign with the same words written on it.
According to an official transcript of Albanese’s speech, the leftist Labor Party leader began his address by “acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to elders past present and emerging.”
Albanese touted some of his administration’s economic and healthcare-related policies. He also asserted he is “determined” to be the prime minister who starts a high speed rail project for Australia, with a first stage that would go from Newcastle to Sydney.
“Today, when nations are openly linking their economic policy with national security. And where global supply chains can be tangled up in this strategic competition. We need to make ourselves more resilient – and more independent,” Albanese said, and added that “navigating this new economic and strategic reality” will be the focus of his discussions with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during Carney’s official visit to Australia next week.
The activists’ angry interruption occurred just hours after Albanese was evacuated from The Lodge, official residence in Canberra on Tuesday night (local time) following a bomb threat scare.
It also follows other moments where the Australian public have made clear Albanese is not welcome.
The BBC reports that the bomb scare stems from email threats issued at the Shen Yun group, a classical Chinese dance and music group banned and oppressed by the Chinese communist regime that it set to hold several performances in Australia over the next weeks.
Shen Yun is linked to Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by the Chinese regime.
“If you insist on proceeding with the performance, then the Prime Minister’s Lodge will be blown into ruins and blood will flow like a river,” one of the threats Shen Yun reportedly received read in Chinese.
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