King Charles III visit: War of words erupts over Minns’ royal BBQ

NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders has been accused of muddling clips of regional NSW with footage taken in Canada and Queensland, with a war of words erupting between the two parties.

Ahead of King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s Australian visit, Mr Saunders attacked the Minns government for claiming a community BBQ to be hosted in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta would be a “celebration of regional NSW”.

On Friday, the Dubbo MP shared a video criticising NSW Premier Chris Minns for conflating Parramatta with regional NSW.

The clip begins with a shot stating: “POV Chris Minns looking for regional NSW,” before it cuts to shots of a farmer harvesting canola fields, which, while common in central NSW, was actually stock footage from Alberta, Canada.

A shot of a van travelling on an outback road was also traced to be footage from Queensland, and not NSW.

NSW Regional Minister Tara Moriarty questioned whether Mr Saunders had confused scenes from NSW’s farming communities with scenes from Canada, and accused him of “petty criticism and political point scoring”.

“This is frankly bizarre behaviour from the Leader of the National Party – it’s not like there is a shortage of incredible places in regional NSW worth showcasing,” she said.

“Mr Saunders should explain if he really does not know the difference between NSW farming communities and those in other countries, or if he simply thought he could get away with spreading misinformation.”

However Mr Saunders questioned Ms Moriarty’s priorities as the regional minister, and said she lacked a “sense of humour” on what was a humorous video.

“The fact the Minister for Regional NSW is spending all her time and resources focusing on a social media video confirms what we always feared,” he said.

“She is not acting in the best interest of Regional NSW and she doesn’t have a sense of humour.”

Previously, Mr Saunders released a short and terse statement in response to the Parramatta event, writing: “The Minns Labor government has today announced an event to celebrate regional NSW will be held in Parramatta, Sydney”.

NSW Labor has also used stock images to promote announcements related to regional NSW, notably a social post from March 2023 about an election promise to double the funding for regional road repairs.

The original image used in the post was found to be a stock image taken in Thailand, however a spokesperson for Ms Moriarty said the usage of stock photos for announcements was not comparable to a video directly claiming to showcase regional NSW.

Their Majesties are set to spend four days of their five-day royal visit in Sydney, with King Charles and Queen Camilla flying into Sydney on Friday night.

While the visit was shortened due to the King’s cancer diagnosis in February, residents will be able to see their Majesties at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday with a crowd of more than 10,000 expected.

King Charles will then fly to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which will also be attended by Anthony Albanese.