Anthony Albanese's carefully managed election campaign has briefly unravelled as the prime minister took a tumble on stage.
Mr Albanese had just finished addressing a union conference when he fell while trying to take a group photo.
Onlookers at the event in the NSW Hunter Valley gasped as the prime minister fell off a riser, clutching another person's arm as he went down.
But he was quickly back on his feet and all smiles as he acknowledged the stumble.
It wasn't the first time things had gone off script during the prime minister's visit to the region.
Mr Albanese was earlier on Thursday visiting Maitland Hospital in the Hunter Valley when two women from activist group Rising Tide rushed in and began yelling while he was mid-speech.
"Mr Albanese, why did your government approve 33 new fossil fuel projects," one shouted.
As the protesters were being ushered away by security, one protester yelled: "The climate crisis is the greatest health threat to the future of Australia."
The Labor campaign in the first week of the race to the May 3 election has had limited interaction with voters and hasn't included street-walks.
In his address to the Mining and Energy Union, Mr Albanese said worker protections were at risk if Peter Dutton won the election.
"He wants to strip away the new protections and new security we’ve delivered for casual workers," the prime minister said.
"He wants to ban working from home, except from Kirribilli House."
Laws which came into effect in November mean labour hire workers can apply for the same pay as permanent employees doing comparable work.
Mr Albanese started the day in Melbourne, where he visited a pharmacy in the city's north in a show of support for the sector following US President Donald Trump's tariffs announcement.
US pharmaceutical giants have previously claimed Australia was engaging in "egregious and discriminatory" pricing policies because it subsidises medicines.
Mr Albanese said the operation of the scheme, which allows Australia to negotiate as a nation with drug companies, is not up for negotiation.
He toured the Bell Street Pharmacy owned by George Spyropoulos in the Labor-held seat of Wills, which is under threat from the Greens.
Angela Crawley, a resident in Melbourne's south, said the federal government had not done enough to help with cost-of-living pressures.
Asked if the performance of the state Labor government influenced how she felt about federal Labor, Ms Crawley said it was "hard not to".
"It's hard to hear or see very much difference between them," she told AAP.
"Having suffered under the Labor government in Victoria years and years, it's hard not to have thoughts of federal being much different from that.
"Yes, one does impact the other."
