Each year, various institutions select a ‘word-of-the-year’, something that reflects the social, political and economic landscapes of the past 12 months.
Now, 2016 has obviously been *A Year*. What with the Syrian refugee crisis, horrific terror attacks ’round the world, and one of the most divisive election campaigns in memory, the words of the year haven’t been pleasant.
“Arguably, the democracy sausage has been one of the best things to come out of a tumultuous year in politics and political campaigning,” said Centre Director Dr Amanda Laugesen, noting that while the term was first recorded in 2012, it exploded in popularity during the 2016 federal election.
The term beat out other shortlist hopefuls including ‘census fail’, ‘smashed avo’, ‘shoey’, ‘deplorables’, and ‘Ausexit’, which sounds like ‘sexit’ if you say it really fast.
Dr Laugesen says part of the reason ‘democracy sausage’ won out of this arguably highly competitive group is because Bill Shorten ate one during election day from the wrong fucking end.
“Its use was also boosted by a controversial incident where Opposition Leader Bill Shorten – who noted his sausage sandwich was ‘the taste of democracy’ – ate his sausage from the middle,” she said.
What. a. time.
Photo: Getty / Lisa Maree Williams.
