People Are Putting Out Their Potatoes For Peter Dutton After His Leadership Spill Loss

It’s been a whirlwind morning in Australian politics — in the course of just fifteen minutes today, Malcolm Turnbull declared a leadership spill, Peter Dutton put up his hand to lead, and the Liberal Party said yeah, nah, we’ll keep Turnbull. And already, people are putting out their potatoes in solemn tribute to Dutton’s loss.

Putting out thematically appropriate veggies has rapidly become a tradition in Australia’s all-too-frequent leadership spills. Cast your mind back to 2015, for instance, when Aussies called on one another to #PutOutYourOnions in tribute to Tony Abbott when he was rolled in a leadership spill by Malcolm Turnbull.

In that case, onion was the obvious choice, given Abbott’s infamous penchant for just biting into raw onions with the skin on and everything. For Dutton, the obvious choice is a potato, because look at the guy:

Already, people around the country have begun to #PutOutYourPotatoes for Peter Dutton. And in case it wasn’t clear from this sad collection of photos, there’s no genuine sadness in this tribute — Peter Dutton is famous as the guy running the hideous offshore detention regime on Manus Island and Nauru, as well as for other things like boycotting the Apology to the Stolen Generations, spouting dangerous shit about “African gangs”, and generally being a real shitty potato person.

In short, no one wants this guy to be Prime Minister, and they’re making it known… with potatoes.

#PutYourPotatosOut #auspol pic.twitter.com/Ifkj6b9P2j

— David Alexander (@davidFalexander) August 20, 2018

Turnbull wins 48-35, inconceivable Dutton remains on the front bench #putoutyourpotatoes pic.twitter.com/jbirdtEaj3

— Comrade Weez (@weezmgk) August 20, 2018

In memory of Peter Dutton's #libspill challenge #auspol #PutOutYourPotatoes pic.twitter.com/yIS1pufySW

— BYoung 🇦🇺 (@MrBMYoung) August 20, 2018

Everybody #PutOutYourPotatoes pic.twitter.com/fYflep5p5J

— @[email protected] (@elronxenu) January 3, 2016

This isn’t the first time potatoes have been use to protest Dutton, either. Back in June a bunch of potatoes staged a protest against Dutton’s appalling treatment of asylum seekers — we actually interviewed one of the potatoes at the time. And as silly as it sounds, they make a good point: amidst all this chaos about Dutton and politics drama, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Dutton has spent years as the person responsible for a truly unacceptable offshore detention regime that this country should be ashamed of.

There’s no other way to put it: this guy shouldn’t be Prime Minister. And as we put out our potatoes today, let’s hope that this is the end of it, and he never is.