In the high-stakes world of politics, appearances are everything. But even the most media-savvy Australian politicians occasionally find themselves in hilariously awkward situations when live cameras are rolling. From unexpected sprinkler ambushes to ill-timed hand gestures, these moments remind us that beneath the polished personas, politicians are only human – and sometimes, delightfully funny humans at that.
Sprinklers Strike Again
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley recently became the latest victim of the dreaded surprise sprinkler attack. During a live cross on Sky News, Ley barely had time to register the whirring sound before jets of water sent her ducking for cover.
“Sorry Pete, we’ve just got the sprinkler starting”, she called out to a bewildered host as the mist descended. Ever the professional, Ley quickly rejoined the interview, quipping “I’m here, Pete, the sprinklers on the amazing lawn in front of the War Memorial in Leeton in the Riverina just turned on and I got soaked.”
But Ley is far from the first pollie to feel the unanticipated spray. In 2018, Clive Palmer called an abrupt end to an outdoor presser as the watery barrage sent him and gathered journalists scattering like ants.
“We’ve got to call it quits,” a drenched Palmer conceded, in what some speculated may have been a gardener conspiracy.
Jaymes Diaz’s Unforgettable Forget
Of course, sometimes the greatest gaffes require no external forces at all. In an excruciatingly awkward 2013 interview, then-Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz confidently declared the Coalition had a “six-point plan” to stop asylum seeker boats – then completely failed to name a single point when pressed.
The floundering Diaz quickly became a viral sensation, with his deer-in-headlights expression and flustered “We have… We have…” etched into the annals of political discombobulation.
Signs, Fingers & Frustrated Faces
Every so often, the gaffe gods align to deliver the perfect visual metaphor. When a strolling Tony Abbott was snapped wandering past a Reject Shop in 2015, satirists had a field day – especially when the embattled PM was indeed rejected by his own party just months later.
But Abbott isn’t the only one to suffer death by optics. When a homeowner scolded PM Scott Morrison‘s press pack for trampling his freshly seeded lawn in 2021, Morrison’s forced grin-and-bear-it expression said it all.
And sometimes, no words are needed at all. South Australian senator Lucy Gichuhi’s magnificently meme-able series of shocked faces when confronted with Michaelia Cash’s rumour-mongering spoke volumes.
Most brazen of all, ACT Liberal leader Elizabeth Lee shocked even her own staff when, believing herself off-camera after a testy presser, she briefly flipped the bird at a journalist before hastily rearranging her face into a polite smile.
All Too Human
From surprise soakings to undiplomatic digits, these candid moments capture the sheer unpredictability of life in the political spotlight. They remind us that for all their media training, speech drills and carefully staged appearances, politicians are not immune to the on-air gaffes and blunders that catch us all from time to time.
In an era of curated social media and airbrushed public images, there’s something refreshingly authentic, relatable, and downright hilarious about those times the façade slips and politicians are revealed as the flawed, flustered, all-too-human characters they truly are. As the old saying goes, we elect politicians to represent us – and perhaps never more so than when the cameras catch them at their gloriously fallible finest.
