EXCLUSIVE: Video surfaces of Anthony Albanese hammering John Howard for his new glasses makeover – and now HE’S the one debuting a flash new look as he vies to become prime minister
- Anthony Albanese blasted John Howard for changing glasses in speech in 1998
- But now Labor leader’s had a re-brand of his own as he tries to become the PM
- Opposition leader – who grew up in housing commission – has had a makeover
- He posed for pictures in a fitted shirt, skinny grey chinos and white sneakers
Twenty-four years ago a young Anthony Albanese blasted John Howard for changing his glasses, describing the makeover as ‘same stuff different bucket’.
But now the Labor leader’s had a re-brand of his own and starred in a women’s magazine as he tries to become Australia’s next prime minister.
Mr Albanese was a first-term Labor MP in 1998 when he attacked the Liberal legend’s appearance in a savage speech in Parliament.
‘You can trim the eyebrows; you can cap the teeth; you can cut the hair; you can put on different glasses; you can give him a ewe’s milk facial for all I care; but, to paraphrase a gritty Australian saying, ”Same stuff, different bucket”,’ Mr Albanese said to angry jeers from Liberals.
Anthony Albanese with partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan after speaking at the National Press Club in late January
It appears Mr Albanese now has a more positive view of makeovers because on Thursday he debuted a fresh look in a photo shoot with his partner Jodie Haydon for the Women’s Weekly magazine.
The 58-year-old donned a fitted shirt, skinny grey chinos and $129 Country Road gum sole sneakers for the snaps at his Marrickville home.
Celebrity stylist Donny Galella said Mr Albanese was ‘giving himself a little re-brand’ in a bid to become prime minister.
The Opposition leader – who grew up in housing commission – had a significant makeover last year, losing 15kg, investing in new suits and snapping up some $349 Byblos Black Havana spectacles.
In 2015 he admitted to having braces and dental implants to fix his ‘terrible working-class teeth’.
In his 1998 speech, made just two years after he entered Parliament as a 33-year-old, Mr Albanese tore into Mr Howard who was in his first term as PM.
John Howard is pictured left in 1987 and right in 2002. Mr Albanese attacked him for changing his glasses
‘In the pantheon of chinless blue bloods and suburban accountants that makes up the Australian Liberal Party, this bloke is truly one out of the box,’ the left-wing MP for Grayndler said.
‘You have to go back to Billy McMahon to find a Prime Minister who even approaches this one for petulance, pettiness and sheer grinding inadequacy.’
Mr McMahon was Liberal PM from 1971 to 1972 when he lost in a landslide to Gough Whitlam.
Mr Howard – who remained in power until 2007 – was said to be deeply offended by Mr Albanese’s brutal speech.
The Labor leader told his biographer Karen Middleton in 2016 that he wouldn’t make such a fiery speech now.
‘I was a first-term MP. Labor had been decimated and we needed to show that we had some fight. Is it a speech I’d give now? No,’ he said.
‘It was my speech and I take responsibility for whether people like it or not… The political point to it was that Australia, as we approached the end of the century, needed to embrace diversity and modernise’.
A spokesman for Mr Albanese declined to comment further.
Federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese with mum Maryanne Ellery and son Nathan
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