Tony Abbott admits he was fighting the urge to thump journalist in 2011 interview
In the densely packed annals of hostile encounters between Australian political figures and the journalists who report on them, it is hard to find a more mesmerising one than “The Stare-Off”.
The Stare-Off took place on February 8, 2011, between then-opposition leader Tony Abbott and Seven News reporter Mark Riley.
Questioned by Riley in a Parliament House courtyard about deploying the phrase “shit happens” on a recent Afghanistan visit when discussing the death of an Australian soldier, Abbott did not — for the most part — reply verbally.
Instead, for 24 seemingly endless seconds, he stared levelly at his questioner, his only response an agonised and slightly woodpeckerish series of taut nods as Riley prompted him for an answer.
Tony Abbott stares into the distance.
The encounter — which went viral in the early days of virality — has since racked up more than half a million views on YouTube.
And nearly a decade and a half later, Abbott has confirmed what many transfixed viewers at the time suspected: the former Oxford boxing blue was struggling with his urge to thump Riley.
Obviously I was curious when I saw the headline, and I was neither disappointed nor surprised. With hindsight it’s only surprising that he didn’t do it; there’s an old story in the SMH by Michael Duffy which emphasises that basic aggression that was bred into him by his dad (cos the latter was kind of pissy about not seeing action in WW2, apparently) …and how it’s kind of manifested in everything he did thereafter…
Abbott recalls: “I said to General Cantwell, ‘So you’re saying that there was no lack of firepower, this was a simple case of shit happens’. And he said, ‘You’re right, Tony, it was a case of shit happens.'”
According to the original video, Cantwell does not say the words recalled by Abbott, but he does nod.
Abbott’s view is that Riley tried to “take out of context that expression, ‘shit happens’, and present me as somehow making light of the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney”.
“Honestly, it was a contemptible thing to do. I’m not saying that Mark Riley is a, you know, terrible person, but I thought that was an unprofessional thing to do.”
As opposed to beating the crap out of him, presumably? No offence to Mark Riley, but I kind of wish Abbott had thumped him, cos it probably would’ve been the end of the cunt and we might’ve never had to put up with him again…
