Federal election 2025: Albanese admits falling on stage, then doubles-down on denial hours later
Anthony Albanese has doubled down on his denial about falling off a stage earlier in the campaign, despite it being caught on camera and making a surprise admission just hours earlier that he had, in fact, fallen.
The bizarre twist in the stage fall tale started on Thursday morning when the Prime Minister admitted the worst part of his campaign was 'falling off a stage'.
It's a fact Mr Albanese has been reluctant to admit since the incident at a Mining and Energy Union conference on April 3 while in Cessnock, NSW.
He was caught by two bystanders and told the crowd he 'didn't fall off the stage, just one leg went down, but I was sweet', despite the stack being caught on camera.
In Perth for The West Australian's Leadership Matters event, Mr Albanese publicly joked about the incident for the first time, offering it up as an answer when asked what the worst part of his campaign had been.
'Probably falling off a stage,' he said before praising the occupation health and safety on the one he was siting on, which was well lit and marked.
Mr Albanese then joked he was surprised the NSW function didn't have better safety standards given it was organised by a mining union.
But, an hour later, he said his admission was 'a joke' and told a reporter to 'chill out' while at a press conference in Forrestfield in Perth's outer seat of Bullwinkel.
'I stepped off the stage. I didn't fall over on my backside. I stumbled. That's what happened. I laughed about it at the time. I laughed about it, since it's no big deal,' he said.
The journalist started her question: 'You said this morning, at the breakfast event, that falling off the stage had been the worst moment of the campaign for you when you were in the Hunter Valley…'
But she was cut off by the PM, who said 'It was a joke' before adding 'chill out' and attempting to move on to the next journalist.
Despite trying to move on from the stepping off versus falling debate, the Prime Minister was then asked why the issue mattered so much to him and why he wouldn't just admit he fell and move on given the Coalition had used it as an attack line to paint him as a liar.
'Frankly, it says something about their character,' Mr Albanese said.
'If the Coalition is spending time on memes and on media about that issue.
'It says that my government's economic policy, social policy, environmental policy, foreign policy, and national security policy are going okay. That's the message it sends.'
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