Australian PM defends ‘baby and beer’ photo
Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brushed off criticism of a photo of him nursing a beer while holding his granddaughter as online “craziness”.
Turnbull posted the image that he labelled “multitasking” on Facebook over the weekend as he watched an Australian Rules game in Sydney yesterday.
It showed him kissing the forehead of baby Alice while holding the drink, drawing the ire of some social media users.
“Disgraceful holding a child with alcohol in hand,” wrote Marg Walker, while another called him “irresponsible”.
Turnbull said the backlash was only from a vocal minority.
“I think it is in the sort of craziness of social media that you see things like that,” he told Melbourne radio station Triple M.
“You’ve just got to be yourself. As long as you’re comfortable in your own skin, be yourself, be natural.
“Anything else, you end up being as crazy as the trolls on Twitter.”
While some took exception, most of the nearly 1,700 comments about the image on Turnbull’s Facebook page defended it as a tender family moment.
“He’s a human being, like all of us. He loves his children and grandchildren, just like I do and millions of others. Give him a break,” said one user.
Turnbull was also backed from all corners of the political field.
“I’ve found something Malcolm and I can agree on. This is rubbish. Let him be a grandpa,” tweeted opposition Labour chief Bill Shorten.
Greens senator Sarah HansonYoung added it was “hardly the PM’s ‘Michael Jackson’s baby over the balcony’ moment”, referring to an infamous incident involving the late US pop star an his infant son.
“If anything, this has made the Prime Minister look a bit more personable to the public,” she added on Channel Seven television. — AFP
You’ve just got to be yourself. As long as you’re comfortable in your own skin, be yourself, be natural. Malcom Turnbull