Aussie PM’s baby and beer outrage ‘online craziness’

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brushed off criticism yesterday of a photo of him nursing a beer while holding his granddaughter as online craziness.

Turnbull posted the image he labelled multitasking on Facebook at the weekend as he watched an Australian Rules game in Sydney.

It showed him kissing the forehead of baby Alice while holding the drink, drawing the ire of social media users.

“Disgraceful holding a child with alcohol in hand,” Marg Walker wrote, while another called him irresponsible.

Turnbull said the backlash was only from a minority.

“I think it’s in the sort of craziness of social media that you see things like that,” he said.

“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 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,” one user said.

Turnbull was also backed from all corners of politics.

“This is rubbish. Let him be a grandpa,” tweeted opposition Labour leader Bill Shorten.

Greens senator Sarah HansonYoung said 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.