‘We don’t want you here’: Anthony Albanese heckled by offshore wind protesters in Lake Illawarra

Loud hecklers have booed and taunted Anthony Albanese as a “weak leader” during a press stop on the NSW south coast on Friday morning.

Lake Illawarra locals, believed to be staunch opponents to the development of offshore wind farms, interrupted the prime minister’s press conference to honour retiring local member, assistant treasurer Stephen Jones, and announce Labor’s replacement candidate for the upcoming election, Carol Berry.

The presser was also intended to be the soapbox to announce $850,000 in funding for the Shellharbour integrated child and family precinct.

But the friendly meet and greet with supporters before he stepped up to the media pack was derailed when angry residents could be heard shouting at the Labor leader to “get out of here”.

“We don’t want you. Get out of here Albo, we don’t want you here. You’re a weak leader, Albo,” one person could be heard saying.

One heckler suggested the prime minister build the wind turbines in front of his “mansion” — referencing the $4.3 million clifftop house at Copacabana which he bought in 2024 to much furore.

Another man, wielding a mobile phone pointed as though filming Mr Albanese, echoed the call.

“We want the prime minister to get out of here. You don’t respect the region. We don’t want your wind farms, you don’t want them off your property, get out of here.”

One woman from the crowd of supporters told Mr Albanese “we want you here”.

As the prime minister approached the press pack, he fired back at one of the taunters.

“Nice dog, mate,” he said, winning some laughs from the supporters behind him. “Thanks for that, mate.”

The heckles continued throughout the press conference as the PM paid tribute to Mr Jones and announced his pre-selected replacement for the seat of Whitlam, Ms Berry — who they also turned against.

But Mr Albanese hit back at one person’s claim she was “parachuted” into the south coast seat, saying she was elected unopposed.

He also responded more directly to the hecklers’ concerns about the turbines, saying: “Turbines are made of steel, by the way.”

The nearby BlueScope Steel facility at Port Kembla is a major employer in the region, and the company is Australia’s largest exporter of steel to the United States. There are concerns about how US President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff on steel imports could impact business and workers’ futures.

Mr Albanese attempted to allay concerns by insisting he had made a “very strong case” to Mr Trump for Australia to be exempt from the taxes but did not commit to releasing modelling of how the tariffs would impact the local industry.

“We continue to put forward our case which is a very simple one,” Mr Albanese said. “Australia has zero tariffs on US goods coming into Australia.”

He acknowledged the recent statement about reciprocal tariffs — the president’s bid to “level (the) playing field”, he said, by taxing countries that put duties on US imports — but said “Australia has none on the US”.

“We have a Free Trade Agreement. We support jobs. We support jobs ... steel turbines are made of steel by the way,” he continued, insisting that his government supported “blue collar jobs”.

“My message is clear, which is ‘we have got your back’. We support blue collar jobs. We support steel works here.

“We continue to support jobs in the Illawarra and we support the steel workers.”

One local shouted in the background that was “another lie”.