Sydney, Sept. 3 (AP): A disgruntled voter hurled a bag of cheese at Australian Prime Minister John Howard, during a campaign speech today, telling him he would soon be out of a job.

At an election stop on the Tweed River, 500 kilometers north of Sydney, protester Paul Taylor, worked his way to the front of a crowd of the waiting media before letting rip with his bag of cheese.

The bag landed at the Prime Minister's feet and did not hurt him.

Howard was speaking to reporters about his plans to support logging communities in the southern State of Tasmania.

Taylor said the Prime Minister should offer the same support to people hit by other forms of industrial deregulation, and then launched into a tirade against Howard and local parliamentarian Larry Anthony.

"On behalf of the working class people in the Tweed I'm going to present this cheese to you because you and your mate are past your use by date and you'll soon be looking for jobs," he said.

It was not immediately clear why Taylor chose to toss cheese at Howard but the protest came just days after allegations surfaced that one of Howard's lawmakers had branded him a "lying rodent." Also, the deregulation of the dairy industry which started in 2000 is a key issue in the region.