Premier Roger Cook swallows fly at press conference in Mandurah

There was a politician who swallowed a fly.

I don’t know why he swallowed a fly — his name was Roger and he wears a tie.

For a brief moment on Monday morning it appeared that Mandurah had a pest invasion on its hands.

Premier Roger Cook, Treasurer Rita Saffioti and Mandurah mayor Rhys Williams doused themselves in insect repellent before a press conference by the often mosquito-stricken Peel Estuary, to no avail.

About 18 minutes into the event, Mr Cook started spluttering, reaching for the H2O and confirmed he had indeed swallowed a fly.

“As a former Minister for Health I’m right into a high protein diet, but that’s ridiculous. It went straight down,” he said.

The CSIRO has described the approaching warmer season as like “schoolies week for flies, but over three months” when young adult flies emerge from their winter rest “highly mobile, hungry, sex-obsessed.”

But rather than being irritated by the constant need to swat them away, the CSIRO has also reported that flies are an integral part of the Australian ecosystem because they pollinate as many plants as bees.

There’s an estimated 30,000 species of flies in Australia, but one less insect left after Monday.

Roger Cook - 1, Fly - 0.