Last Friday, Tony Abbott brought tears to the eyes of the nation when, during a visit to a Tasmanian farm, he picked up a raw brown onion and took a big ol’ bite, real casual like, skin and all.
Today, the Prime Minister has finally broken his long silence on just why the bloody hell you would ever do something like that, with the following quote coming courtesy of The Age:
“I thought it was very important that I should show my support for the great products that the Tasmanian agricultural industry produces and, you know, I enjoy onions. I normally have them cooked on the barbecue, but I enjoy onions!”
Given that justification, we’re fairly glad he wasn’t visiting a beef cattle property, or there’d be a terrified cow running around right now with Tony Abbott’s teeth marks imprinted in its arse.
If you care to relive the onion incident, we won’t stand in your way:
#ICYMI Prime Minister Tony Abbott eats an onion, skin and all, while touring an onion farm in Tasmania.http://t.co/Nhm4IOxqn2
— ABC News (@abcnews) March 13, 2015
Lechelle Earl, the chief executive of Onions Australia, is positively delighted by all this, as onions are getting more press this week than they probably have at any point in the history of our fair nation.
Earl, whose breath we don’t particularly want to smell tbh, says that she was “surprised but thrilled” to see Abbott biting into a good quality raw onion, and that she would have done the same, albeit after removing the peel.
The phones (plural – you read that right) at Onions Australia have been “running hot” with questions as to the health and nutritional benefits of onions since last week’s incident.
Abbott can expect to receive a gift basket of raw onions, as well as a “top secret” recipe, from Earl, who is travelling to Canberra this week. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce will be getting one too.
Amongst other health benefits, raw onions are said to encourage the production of “good” high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. We’re still not biting into one, though, because that’s goddamn gross.
Photo: Dave Rowland via Getty Images
