Have you heard the one about the gatecrasher who was so determined that the party was called off?
An unscheduled appearance by the federal Labor MP for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips, at a local media event in regional NSW featuring Marise Payne and Jim Molan caused the foreign minister to abandon the press conference without speaking to the media.
Phillips – whose electorate takes in the Nowra Bridge project, which was an election commitment made in an (unsuccessful) attempt to keep the seat in Coalition hands – heard Payne and Molan planned to highlight the bridge’s progress for the local media on Thursday, and decided to take part.
Senators @MarisePayne & @JimMolan inspect the new Nowra Bridge. The director of the job says good weather’s kept it on time.
— Jared Constable (@JaredConstable) February 11, 2021
It was an all-Liberal tour of the construction site, but local Labor MP @fiboydphillips was a surprise arrival 👀@WINNews_Woll #winnews6pm #gilmore pic.twitter.com/vKxateZiSU
It quickly became a bridge over troubled waters, after the Labor MP was told she could not be part of the press conference, as it was a Liberal event.
Phillips refused to leave, saying as the federal MP for the area, she had a right to take part in infrastructure announcements for the region – even if it was just a tour of the pylons.
It was a bridge too far for the foreign minister, who returned to her vehicle, abandoning the press conference.
Molan spoke his piece, and Phillips held her own press conference moments later, explaining she had not intended to be disruptive, but instead had questions for the foreign minister on behalf of her community.
“Senator Molan told me ‘the minister is not going to do that’ and she left,” Phillips told the Guardian.
“I welcome anyone to the electorate – I had important questions for Marise Payne, we have a lot of stranded Australians overseas at the moment – we have had James Cater stuck overseas in Siberia since March.
“Scott Morrison holidayed here over the summer, but James Cater can’t come home to the Shoalhaven and that’s what I wanted to talk to the minister about – what is she doing to bring people home?”
Phillips said it wasn’t a stunt, she found out about the event as she is “around that area all the time” and she said she regularly worked with government MPs for her community and had “done various things with Jim Molan in the electorate before” so was “surprised” by Payne’s reaction.
Welcome to Senators the Honorable @MarisePayne and @JimMolan joining Shoalhaven Business Chamber President @JemTribe and local travel agents for an industry update this morning at the popup Encore Cafe and Bar out front of @ShoalhavenCC administration building.
— Shoalhaven Ent Cent (@sec_nowra) February 11, 2021
📸 @JemTribe pic.twitter.com/BgjPCz6wbY
Payne and Molan were in the Shoalhaven after attending a Liberal party event the night before, which Molan told the ABC was not a fundraiser.
Payne’s office has been contacted for comment.
