A WOMAN has been charged after allegedly attempting to strike Prime Minister Scott Morrison with an egg at a Country Women’s Association function in Albury in NSW.
The 24-year-old Victorian woman wearing a beanie and wielding a six-pack of eggs was arrested at the scene after allegedly attempting to crack the egg on the prime minister’s head.
Mr Morrison reacted as if an object or a hand touched his head, but the egg appears to have flown over his head and was later found whole and unbroken.
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READ NOWPolice later found cannabis on the woman, who was charged with common assault and drug possession.
She is due to reappear in Albury Local Court on May 27, having been granted strict conditional bail.
Margaret Baxter, a 70-year-old who had recently undergone stomach surgery, was knocked to the floor in the incident, but helped to her feet by the prime minister.
“All I know, I saw a guy with a camera start to wobble and he knocked me and I went down,” she told reporters.
“I found out later that there was a protester trying to get in but I didn’t see the protester.
“I have to say that the prime minister helped me get up off the floor and I was very grateful for his assistance.”
Outside the venue, the protester told reporters she didn’t mean to knock the other woman down.
“I don’t want to give a report, no thank you. I’ve got to go to work. No comment,” she told reporters.
She denied using violence, describing the action as “the most harmless thing you can do”.
It’s understood the young woman was protesting the coalition government’s asylum seeker policy.
Mr Morrison said he did not want to “over-egg” the incident, because his main concern was for Mrs Baxter’s wellbeing.
“We have got to disagree better about things,” he 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.”