Culture

This Tony Abbott Impersonator is Doing Better Than the Real Tony Abbott at G20

Well, this is awkward.

by Meg Watson  15 November 2014

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Welcome to your weekend, Australia. All the city blockades, egg bans and general everyday pain-in-the-assery have come to a head, there are lots of people protesting in the streets, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been out all night taking selfies with drunk locals, and all your friends with political hard ons won’t stop frothing over Obama — the G20 is here.

Though the formal proceedings officially kick off at 3pm, there’s already been a lot happening in Brisbane. Tony Abbott has spent the morning waffling on about Medicare co-payments to the world’s most powerful people at the inaugural leaders’ retreat. And earlier today, President Obama was met at Brisbane Airport by these two winners.

brandis

Image via ABC live blog.

After cruising around the city in The Beast and receiving ongoing awe and adoration from the locals, Obama is now about to take the stage at the University of Queensland for a speech that is already being heralded as historic. Without even mentioning the national embarrassment of the climate change agreement between the US and China — whoops, I guess we did — it’s safe to say that Tony Abbott doesn’t stand much of a chance in this international pissing contest.

But there may be a saviour for us yet. Some poor bastard with an eerie resemblance to our prime minister is currently out and about in the Brisbane protests doing the nation proud.

This local Abbott impersonator, Oliver Dickson, has been spotted at the People’s March shaking hands with Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton. Though proudly displaying his allegiances for coal seam gas in the way of a lurid bright yellow badge and reportedly declaring “growth leads to jobs”, he seems to be a hit with the crowds.

And this isn’t even the first time he’s been out campaigning. Dickson has spent the last month or so strutting around Brisbane city streets, agitating everyday citizens, and burning the image of his budgie smugglers into the retinas of local beach-goers. His schtick has been so popular, even Kochie is on board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kse_xD0vg8g&feature=youtu.be

But, though Sunrise were quick to praise Dickson for his incredible likeness to our national leader, it should be said that there’s one important difference. Yesterday, Tony Abbott declared there was “nothing but bush” in Australia before white settlement, and today, Dickson was seen meeting with a respected member of our Indigenous community.

Would anyone notice if we quickly swapped them over before the official meetings begin?

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Photo: Lachlan Mackintosh via Twitter.