Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Courtney Gould gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House.<\/p>\n
Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor are both leaders under pressure trying to control the narrative in different ways.<\/p>\n
While the prime minister was cutting off a press conference to avoid answering questions over what's become a melee over melons, back in Canberra the opposition leader's staffer was caught on camera letting loose at a journalist.<\/p>\n
Channel 10 journalist Ashleigh Raper was grilling Taylor about his links to Dallas McInerney, who has been named in the NSW ICAC inquiry into illegal donations to the NSW Liberals.<\/p>\n
The opposition leader has previously denied he gave money to the Liberal faction at the centre of the corruption probe into branch stacking. He repeated on Thursday that no payment had been made, while avoiding questions about discussions (after allegations surfaced in the inquiry members of the group had asked him for money).<\/p>\n
After Taylor walked away, his senior adviser Kane Silom took aim at the Channel 10 reporter. "Are your ratings that bad? Seriously, that's a fricken disgrace," he said. "No wonder 10+ got cut," he said, referring to the current affairs program that was recently wound back.<\/p>\n
Anthony Albanese faced questions over a gesture he made during a podcast interview.\u00a0 (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
Albanese prefers to avoid the question all together. Like Taylor, he also made himself available to the media. The press conference in Newcastle, to mark a deal to keep the Tomago smelter running, was only the fourth in the past month. None of the press conferences were held in Canberra where he faced questions from political reporters.<\/p>\n
The government had been running the line that the prime minister's gesturing in front of his chest, while he discussed the two melons gifted to him by his Japanese counterpart, had been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n
So, the press conference was the first chance to ask the prime minister: so what DID you mean?<\/p>\n
Albanese began answering the question (he uses his hands all the time and the relationship with Japan is great), before NSW Premier Chris Minns intervened to demand the topic return to the smelter.<\/p>\n
A carefully timed cut off by a staffer ensured journalists not from the local area had no further opportunity.<\/p>\n
The prime minister's decision to appear on the Bush Deep podcast last month has become a game of whack-a-mole for the government. When it was originally published, Albanese copped it for remarks he made about Kylie Minogue. He swiftly apologised for that.<\/p>\n
But after a former Japanese ambassador, Shingo Yamagami (who is no fan of the Labor government as my colleague Stephen Dziedzic reported), claimed the joke was disrespectful, the podcast returned to the headlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Albanese could have done the same thing he did last time, swiftly conceding his mistake before moving on but he didn't.\u00a0<\/p>\n