Anthony Albanese has outraged Melbourne residents by mispronouncing their city’s name.

The Leader of the Opposition called Melburnians Mel-BORE-nians in a campaign speech delivered in the city on Wednesday morning.

Australians, and Melbourne residents in particular, skip several letters when pronouncing city, so it sounds more like Mel-bn.

The Labor leader, known as Alba-knees, Alba-nay-zay and Alban-ee-zee, pronounced it more like Americans, who usually pronounce the city name as it is spelled with each letter spoken.

‘Well that’s it. I was going to vote for him but that’s a step too far. Absolute drivel,” an annoyed local wrote online.

Mr Albanese’s gaffe offended the Sunrise hosts so much they commandeered a panel to get to the bottom of it, one suggesting it was because he was “a bogan” watching The Bourne Identity.

Host Natalie Barr played the mispronunciation clip, then moved on to Bianca Stone at Seven’s Gold Coast studio.

Stone, however, thought they were being a little too hard on the Labor leader and suggested it all came down to his movie-watching habits.

“Don’t be hard on him. He is a big fan of The Bourne Identity. He watched the whole show the night before,” she said.

“He loves Matt Damon and it was just in his head. ‘Mel-BORE-niens.’

Stone pointed out that Brisbane is sometimes mispronounced as Bris-bayne, for similar reasons.

“It’s just a bogan, kiss it,” she said.

Bianca Stone (pictured), speaking on Sunrise, said Anthony Albanese is ‘just a bogan, embrace him’

Ben Davis, in Channel 7’s Melbourne studio, also found a cinematic explanation for the Albanese misunderstanding.

“He channels Dustin Hoffman from the (1988 movie) Rainman. Do you remember he said Mel-BORNE?

Davis then showed her background in high school economics in the 1980s.

“We shouldn’t focus on that. We should focus on what he said afterwards about the (minimum) salary increases, 5.1% to match inflation,” he said. he declares.

“I did some economics in grade 12…the only thing I remember is the more you inflate that balloon and add things like pay raises, the more interest rates are going to go up. , the more inflation increases.

“Oh my God, really? Match wages to… inflation. Doesn’t that just make things worse?

Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr (pictured) convened a panel on Wednesday morning to address Anthony Albanese’s mispronunciation of Melburnians

An online commenter sought to broaden the conversation beyond the name of the townspeople to include the town itself.

“Actually we don’t live in Melburn or Mel-bn, we live in Melbourne,” they wrote.

But others were more lenient towards Mr Albanese: ‘To be fair, there are a lot of words he mispronounces,’ one wrote.

Another, like Davis, said it all comes down to the economy. ‘I don’t care what he calls us, I care what he does for us!’ they wrote.

One poster, however, expressed sympathy for the Labor leader, writing: ‘You must be thick skinned to survive brutal trouble, I’m ready to give a bag of cement.

Anthony Albanese holds four-month-old Gabrielle Nina Ritchie in Melbourne on Tuesday. Gabrielle probably doesn’t care that the Labor leader mispronounced the collective name of the people in her hometown

Some took the opportunity to criticize Prime Minister Scot Morrison or Sunrise presenters who took issue with Mr Albanese’s speech.

“I noticed that Sunrise didn’t notice Morrison on his mispronounced words. You could do a weekly series on this,” one wrote.

Another wrote: ‘I’m sure they have wonderful lives their big political issue is pronunciation.

Stone responded to this, however, “You know news is slow when we get mad at Albanese for this,” she said.

“Because there’s probably a lot of other things he’s probably doing wrong and pronouncing wrong, not to mention how he pronounces the name.”