Anthony Albanese has been slammed by the Greens and environmental activists after the prime minster wore a Rio Tinto hi-vis shirt.
Mr Albanese wore the shirt in the Western Australian mining town of Karratha while speaking about the US military aircraft crash in the Northern Territory on Sunday.
Three marines were killed and five left in a serious condition in hospital after the Boeing MV-22B Osprey crashed on Melville Island in the Tiwi Islands.
Mr Albanese's outfit appears to have drawn attention away from the gravity of the press conference with critics taking issue over the history of the mining magnate.
Greens senator David Shoebridge was among the most vocal issuing a blistering takedown on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
'It takes a conscious effort to put on a shirt for a cause,' Mr Shoebridge wrote about the yellow top which had Anthony written on one side and Rio Tinto on the other.
Mr Albanese wore the shirt in the Western Australian mining town of Karratha while speaking about the US military aircraft crash in the Northern Territory on Sunday
Mr Albanese wore the shirt in the Western Australian mining town of Karratha while speaking about the US military aircraft crash in the Northern Territory on Sunday
'You think about which one, strip off your old one and pull it over your head for a purpose. This bloke chose Rio Tinto's shirt.
'The company that blew up a 46,000 year old sacred rock shelter for profit.'
In May 2020, the mining giant blew up two shelters that showed human occupancy going back 46,000 years to access higher-grade iron ore at at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region.
Mr Shoebridge was joined in his condemnation by former Greens senator Christine Milne.
'Looks like Rio Tinto did catch more flies with honey,' she tweeted.
Law firm Marque Lawyers tweeted the same photo of Mr Albanese alongside one of former prime minister Scott Morrison wearing a very similar shirt with Scott written on one side and Fortescue written on the other.
Mr Morrison was standing beside Fortescue owner Andrew Forrest in that photo, with the law practice, whose motto is 'Law, done differently', making a tongue-in-cheek comment.
'It's just a colour that looks good on everyone,' the firm wrote.
Mr Albanese had been wearing the shirt while touring the iron ore operations of Rio Tinto with Minister for Resources Madeleine King.
Mr Albanese praised Rio Tinto's iron ore operations and its contribution to the economy.
'As I was standing in the cabin there today watching the iron ore go into the hull of that ship, what I was also watching was funding for schools, funding for hospitals, funding to keep our national economy going that comes from this sector and comes from the hard work that's done by people here in the Pilbara, that is so vital,' he said.
'I think often in the eastern states they take this work for granted, take the economic activity, the revenue for granted as well. I'm here to say that we shouldn't do that.'
Social media users were quick to join the pile-on against Mr Albanese saying he had made the wrong choice in clothing.
'You're right, I was going to cut him some slack as being poorly advised, but no he knew what he was doing, consciously,' wrote one.
'Albanese is just horrible, the worst prime minister Australia has ever had,' said another.
That tweeter added that 'the mining industry pays no taxes whatsoever none, and on the top of that, we subsidise them with our tax money' - but this is not true.
Anthony Albanese has been slammed by greenies for wearing a Rio Tinto hi-vis shirt on Sunday (pictured)
Mr Albanese (pictured right) has been compared to his predecessor Scott Morrison (pictured left with mining billionaire Andrew Forrest)
Rio Tinto paid $12.3billion in taxes and royalties in Australia in 2022.
Some commenters took a humorous view of the photo of Mr Albanese, with one saying they 'love the red lettering' on his shirt and another comparing the hi-vis look to Minions, the yellow characters that feature in the popular movie, 'Despicable Me'.
But the snide comments dominated, with one saying 'at least he's wearing his sponsor's logo on his shirt so that we know who is paying the bills'.
Another expressed surprise at the shirt.
'It is so weird. I did not think Rio had that sort of power, especially after the Indigenous cave fiasco,' they wrote.
'Lefty labour out of touch with regular Aussies,' they wrote, spelling Labor wrong.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Prime Minister's office for comment.
It is not the first time Mr Albanese has drawn attention for his choice of outfit after drawing outrage for wearing a Midnight oil t-shirt with the words, 'Voice, Truth, Treaty'.
Mr Albanese had previously insisted that the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament was 'not about a treaty'.
