Tony Abbott Time-Hopped To The 1990s To Resign Via Fax


Before the moderately fast-paced era of Australian internet you know today, when you wanted to send a document, you were forced to feed the paper into a clunky machine, dial a specific set of numbers, and hope the person on the other end was standing by to tediously watch the document print out piece by thinly papered piece. This was known as sending a ‘fax’.

And yesterday, on his final day in office, Tony Abbott time-hopped to the 1990s and sent one.


As reported by Laurie Oaks, in the wake of losing the Leadership, Abbott used this ancient method of communication to inform governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove of his resignation. 

Lord knows why he chose fax when *literally* any other method would be faster / have the personal touch – tradition, maybe? Fax machines are a relatively secure method of communication in today’s age of 12-year-old hackers, but it wasn’t exactly a secret, was it. 

Possible theory: it was critical his letter remained TOP SECRET because it read: “I’ve fucking resigned because of that absolutely fuckwit Malcolm Turnbull, more like Malcolm Turncoat HAHAHAHAHA but fuck him fuck all them and I only ate a fucking onion twice for fuck’s sake, Abbott out.” 

Picture: Stefan Postles via Getty Images / some dark corner of the internet.




Subscribe to PEDESTRIAN.TV on YouTube.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV