Wed 8 May 2019:
A 24-year-old woman who struck Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison with an egg on Tuesday as he campaigned for a May 18 general election has been charged with assault, police said.
Security guards pounced on the protester, who was wearing a beanie and casual clothes, and dragged her away moments after the attack.
“The prime minister was attending an event at Albury Entertainment Centre, when a woman approached him from behind and allegedly struck him with an egg to the back of his head,” New South Wales police said in a statement. Police, who initially said the woman was 25, said they had been arrested her but they did not identify her nor give any details about her motive.
Morrison rubbed his head briefly after being grazed by the egg, which did not break, and then helped an elderly woman who was pushed to the floor in the scuffle, television images showed. No injuries were reported, the police said.
“Just because you have a difference of view to someone, doesn’t mean you have to engage in these sorts of ugly types of protests … We have to learn to disagree better,” he told reporters, referring also to recent protests by vegans against farmers. Opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten called the protester’s action unacceptable.
“This is appalling and disgraceful behavior,” he told reporters. The incident occurred during a visit by the prime minister to Albury, a New South Wales constituency where an independent candidate is the bookmakers’ favorite as rural voters desert the government.
In March, a teenager smashed an egg onto the head of a controversial right-wing Australian lawmaker who had blamed New Zealand’s mosque shootings on its immigration program.
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