{"id":213173,"date":"2019-05-07T04:32:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T08:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=213173"},"modified":"2019-05-07T04:32:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T08:32:20","slug":"australian-prime-minister-hit-with-egg-in-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/07\/australian-prime-minister-hit-with-egg-in-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian prime minister hit with egg in protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The egg appeared to strike Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the back of the head then bounce off without breaking as he spoke to voters at a hall in the regional town of Albury. (File Photo<\/a>: Scott Morrison (ScoMo)\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 Australia’s prime minister was hit on the head with an egg and a woman was knocked off her feet Tuesday during a protest ahead of a general election next week.<\/p>\n

The egg appeared to strike Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the back of the head then bounce off without breaking as he spoke to voters at a hall in the regional town of Albury.<\/p>\n

Bystander Margaret Baxter was knocked to the floor as security guards grabbed a 25-year-old woman who is accused of throwing the egg and carried her outside.<\/p>\n

Morrison helped Baxter to her feet. He later suggested the protester was part of a militant movement that raids farms that it accuses of cruelty to animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern about today’s incident in Albury was for the older lady who was knocked off her feet,\u201d Morrison tweeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped her up and gave her a hug. Our farmers have to put up with these same idiots who are invading their farms and their homes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Baxter later said she had been knocked over by a cameraman. She said she landed on her hip but was not injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister helped me get up off the floor and I was very grateful for his assistance,\u201d Baxter told Australian Broadcasting Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently had surgery on my stomach so my main concern was holding my stomach to make sure it didn’t get hit or somebody land on it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Outside the hall, the protester told reporters she did not mean to knock anyone down.<\/p>\n

The protester, who did not identify herself, described throwing the egg as \u201cthe most harmless thing you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police later said in a statement the woman had been taken into custody.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Bill Shorten condemned the protest as \u201cappalling and disgraceful behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Australia, we have violence-free elections,\u201d Shorten told reporters. \u201cPeople are allowed to protest peacefully, but anything approaching violence is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrison was campaigning in an electorate held by his conservative Liberal Party. The party fears that an independent candidate could win the seat at the election on May 18.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 Australia’s prime minister was hit on the head with an egg and a woman was knocked off …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":209448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-rod-mcguirk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213174,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213173\/revisions\/213174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}