Flag mishap momentarily derails Labor Aged Care Minister Anika Wells’ New Year’s swipe at Coalition

A Government minister has paused her own press conference to reposition the country’s three flags, weeks after Peter Dutton pledged to only stand in front of the Australian flag.

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells used a New Year’s Day press conference in Sydney to talk up Labor’s raft of cost-of-living relief and take swipes at the Coalition’s policies — and the lack of costed plans.

As she went to questions, a staff member for the minister seemed to realise she was not standing directly in front of the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags as is customary for the Labor Government.

“Oops,” Ms Wells said after it was pointed out.

“There’s even literally a photo of what we’re supposed to do.”

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet offers strict instructions about how to display the Australian national flag, and how it can be displayed alongside the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

It’s understood that SBS had set up the space differently, and as soon as the minister’s team realised they moved swiftly to re-set the shot.

The quickly resolved mishap came after the Opposition Leader last month pledged that if he was to become Prime Minister, he would only stand in front of the Australian flag.

“We’re a country united under one flag” he told Sky News at the time, adding that standing beside multiple flags was “dividing our country unnecessarily”.

“We should stand up for who we are, for our values, what we believe in. We are united as a country when we gather under one flag.”

It prompted a swift rebuke from the Government and some Indigenous leaders alike.

Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy at the time said Mr Dutton was “seeking to divide Australia”.

Ms Wells used her New Years Day press conference to remind Australians that this election year, they would have a choice.

“There is a clear choice between the Albanese Government and the Opposition, and we have shown our priorities,” she said, listing electricity bill rebate, cheaper medicines and early education, and rent assistance as among the Government’s achievements.

She said the alternative was a Coalition Government that has only costed one policy in two and a half years — their nuclear plan — which she said “has more holes in it than a golf course”.

“The only way that Peter Dutton can pay for his nuclear plan is with more cuts,” she said.