Australia’s PM did not take his oath wearing a saffron scarf

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not take his oath wearing a saffron scarf. The viral image was taken before Albanese was elected as the Prime Minister during an event organized by the Hindu Council Australia.

Anthony Albanese is the newly elected Prime Minister of Australia; an image of this oath taking ceremony is widely circulating on social media with the claim that Anthony Albanese took his oath as the Prime Minister of Australia wearing a saffron scarf.

The viral image shows Anthony Albanese wearing a saffron scarf with “Om” written on it.

The caption of the post mentioned, “New Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese took oath of office by wearing saffron scarf. Jai Shree Rama.”

(Hindi: ऑस्ट्रेलिया के नए प्रधानमंत्री एंथनी अल्बानीस, भगवा रग की पटिका धारण कर पद की शपथ ली. जय श्री राम |)

Facebook Post

This image is widely circulating with the same claim on Facebook.

Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a keyword search on Google that led us to the video of the time when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was taking his oath as the Prime Minister of Australia after the 2022 Federal election on 23 May 2022.

The caption of the video states, “Anthony Albanese sworn in as Australia's 31st prime minister after 2022 federal election result.”

According to the Guardian Australia Albanese was sworn in alongside an interim ministry of the deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher. The smaller-than-usual ceremony was due to Albanese's flight to Tokyo to attend a meeting of the Quad.

We can clearly see that Anthony Albanese is not wearing the saffron scarf while taking his oath.

Next, we ran a Google reverse image search whose results led us to an article published on 19 May 2022 by ABC News that mentioned “Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wore the scarf at a Hindu Council event in Parramatta earlier this month”.

Anthony Albanese posted similar images with the same saffron scarf on 6 May 2022 on his Facebook account. The caption of the post mentioned “A warm reception in Parramatta tonight with leaders from the Hindu faith and subcontinental communities. My deepest thanks to the Hindu Council Australia for the invitation to tonight’s event.”

Therefore, the image was captured before Anthony Albanese was elected as the PM of Australia.

We found that the former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had attended the event, which was organized by ‘Hindu Council Australia’. He also had worn a similar saffron scarf. He posted the images of the event on 14 May 2022. The caption of the post states, “Fantastic to finish the day in Parramatta with leaders from the Hindu faith and members of the Hindu community. Wonderful that Jen could join me as well. Thank you to Hindu Council Australia for the invitation to attend and for facilitating today’s important forum.”

The Facebook page of the Hindu Council Australia had also posted several videos and images of this event that was organized by them.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the image to be out of context. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not take his oath wearing a saffron scarf. The viral image was taken before Albanese was elected as the Prime Minister during an event organized by the Hindu Council Australia.