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Joyce, the head
of Australia's flag carrier, was speaking at the event in Perth,
capital of Western Australia state, when a man in a business
suit walked onto the stage, reached around to rub the pie in his
face, and calmly walked away, 7 News television showed.
The unidentified man's motive was unclear but he was soon
apprehended by security guards. State police later confirmed
that officers had been called to an assault at a Perth hotel and
that one person was in custody.
Joyce at first appeared stunned by the incident but quickly
regained his composure to tell the audience he did not know why
he had been targeted, Australian media reported, before leaving
the stage to clean up.
He later told reporters he had been unable to identify what
flavor pie he had been hit with.
"My issue is I need a good dry cleaner before I leave Perth, so
if you have one, please recommend it to me," he said.
Long a slapstick comedy favorite, the pie-in-the-face routine
has also developed as a form of political protest.
News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch was famously hit in the face with
a pie while he testified before a British parliamentary inquiry
into a phone-hacking scandal in 2011.
(Reporting by Benjamin Weir; Editing by Paul Tait)
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