Awkward! Cringeworthy moment Bill Shorten offers a high-vis wearing worker a handshake – only to be bitterly rejected
- Labor leader holds out a friendly arm to a worker who turned and walked off
- Another worker then made it worse by ignoring his hand, staring him down
- Penny Wong, also on site, herself ignored a senator’s handshake on Wednesday
- Refusing a handshake embarrasses the other person and is considered very rude
Bill Shorten offered a handshake to tradesmen as he toured an industrial work site only to be rejected – twice – by freight staff in Queensland.
The incident happened as the Labor leader, dressed in a high-visibility worker’s vest, toured the Port of Brisbane in the marginal seat of Bonner held by the Liberal’s Ross Vasta on Thursday.
The former union boss optimistically approached workers at the Australian Container Freight Services (ACFS) Port Logistics facility with his arm outstretched and ready to shake hands.
The moment before disaster struck. A hopeful Bill Shorten extends a gentlemanly hand to the port logistics worker only to be snubbed not once but twice, his hand left hanging in mid-air
It all went horribly wrong for the Opposition Leader when he approached a worker in a black baseball cap and high-vis shirt standing outside a doorway to the facility.
The man simply turned and walked away.
Mr Shorten tried to salvage the moment by walking in through the door and offering his hand of solidarity to a bearded worker standing just inside the door with one hand in his pocket and the other on his hip.
But despite their matching hi-vis shirts, the worker inside the door also would not take the Opposition Leader’s hand.
The worker left it hanging as he instead stared the former AWU secretary down.
Mr Shorten bravely smiled and walked on to his tour bus, shrugging off the sour note on the end of an otherwise successful site visit.
One of the men told 10 Daily why he blanked the man who would be prime minister.
‘I think he’s dangerous. He’s got Grand Canyon-sized holes in his policies.’
Earlier, young staff had taken excited selfies with the Labor leader, among a crowd that had been smiling and nodding through Mr Shorten’s speech
The other man reportedly said he didn’t like any politicians and would have treated Prime Minister Scott Morrison the same way.
‘They’re all dangerous,” he told 10 Daily.
Earlier, young staff had taken excited selfies with the Labor leader, amongst a crowd that had been smiling and nodding through Mr Shorten’s speech.
However, one young man told 10 Daily that he didn’t like Labor’s policies.
‘People say the Liberals are for rich people and Labor is for workers. But Labor seems to be about hurting people when they get ahead,’ he said.
The moment at the end of the debate in Adelaide on Wednesday, that Senator Penny Wong ignored Trade Minister Simon Birmingham’s handshake because she didn’t like what he said
Mr Shorten had been flanked on his work site tour by Kristina Kenneally and Labor Senator Penny Wong, who herself controversially refused to shake hands with Trade Minister Simon Birmingham at a South Australian election debate on Wednesday.
Ms Wong refused to shake Senator Birmingham’s hand at the end of the debate after he said that Labor lacked consistency on its national security approach to China.
Dressed in an identical flourescent hi-vis workers vest, Ms Wong told reporters she did it because she thought Senator Birmingham should have given a non-partisan answer about China.
‘I understand … the risks of playing domestic partisan politics with the relationship with China,’ she said.
‘I did not give a partisan answer in that debate. But I’d say about Senator Birmingham he regrettably did not follow the same approach and as a senior trade minister … he ought to have done so.’
When asked about her refusal to shake the Senator’s hand, Ms Wong said: ‘Well I think that the issue here is the national interest’.
Ms Wong told reporters that Senator Birmingham had not asked for an apology.
‘He hasn’t asked for an apology and I wouldn’t expect him to either,’ she said.