OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has dropped a verbal lead balloon during a morning radio exchange regarding the Costa Concordia disaster, saying "well, that was one boat that did get stopped."
The comment about the sinking of the Italian cruise ship came during an interview on the Adelaide Triple M breakfast show with Ali Carle, Dale Lewis and Warren Tredrea.
At one point during the interview, one of the hosts asked Mr Abbott: "This is just a bit from left field, the captain from the Costa Concordia wants to know if you need any help with your boat policy?"
"Well that was one boat that did get stopped, wasn't it," Mr Abbott replied to laughter.
The accident involving the Concordia, which struck a reef off the Tuscany coast in Italy on January 13, saw at least 11 people killed, 64 injured, and more than 3200 evacuated. As many as two dozen people remain missing.
This morning the Victorian Labor MP Rod Mitchell called on Mr Abbott to apologise for the comment.
"He has no boundaries and lacks judgement," Mr Mitchell said.
"You have 11 people that are dead and at least 20 people missing and he is using this tragedy to make a tasteless jokes, it shows he is unfit to be leader."
Comment is being sought from Mr Abbott, who is this morning riding in a bicycle cancer charity event in South Australia.
-SMH
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