Culture

Former MP Wyatt Roy Mistakes Himself For Rambo, Gets Caught In Firefight With IS Forces In Iraq

Australia's youngest ever MP is having one hell of a gap year.

by Tom Clift  29 September 2016

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How’s this for a story you never thought you’d find yourself reading: Wyatt Roy, the former Assistant Minister for Innovation, has found himself caught in the crossfire between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and members of Islamic State in northern Iraq.

The former Liberal MP told SBS that the firefight took place in Domez, west of Mosul, last Thursday, and resulted in the deaths of five IS fighters. “The danger of a 50-cal bullet, or if they had bigger RPGs, or a mortar round hitting us was pretty serious so we had to stay where we were,” said Roy. “Once [the Peshmerga] had pushed them back, they were very adamant that we get in the car and drive as fast as we could in the other direction.”

Roy said that he was in the country because he “wanted to visit and see for myself, in a way that I really couldn’t have done as a member of parliament.”

The region where Roy was travelling appears to be outside the declared area, where it is illegal for Australians to visit. If Roy is found to have been inside the no-go zone, he could face up to ten years in prison on his return.

Since news of Roy’s escapades broke, Labor has put out a call to find out what the absolute fuck he thought he was doing.

“Warzones are not places for people to act out their boyhood fantasies,” said Labor Senator Penny Wong. “This seems a very unwise, and potentially dangerous act for a former member of Parliament, who should be expected to know better.”

The former MP was also roundly ridiculed on social media.

Roy made history in 2010 when he became the youngest person ever elected to the House of Representatives, at the age of just 20 years old. He was one of a core group of MPs who helped Malcolm Turnbull overthrow Tony Abbott, but lost his seat in Queensland during this year’s federal election.

After the loss he said he was looking forward to spending more time with his friends and family and “just being 26”. From the looks of things, it doesn’t seem like he’s doing a very good job.