Politics

All The Best Reactions To Tony Abbott Losing His Seat In Parliament

RIP Toney

by Sam Langford  18 May 2019
Tony Abbott

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It’s a historic night, folks: after 25 years, Tony Abbott has finally lost the seat of Warringah, and will be leaving Parliament.

Naturally, a fair few Australians are celebrating right now. After all, over the course of his long career Tony Abbott has managed to offend, attack or alienate a sizeable chunk of Australians.

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In his time, Abbott has disappointed people who fear climate change (should be everyone, tbh), Bob Hawke fans, asylum seekers and everyone who supports them, Indigenous Australians, LGBTIQ Australians and more.

It’s no surprise that many Australians are celebrating Abbott’s loss tonight, then. In particular, supporters of his opponent Zali Steggall are pretty stoked — here they are at her post-election event, celebrating her victory:

Meanwhile, the rest of Australia is taking to social media to express themselves. The mood is pretty similar to Steggall’s event, to be honest. Onions have featured frequently.

Of course, Tony Abbott did have some fans, namely the Coalition. Some of them are paying tribute to his legacy right now, others are having a big old sook.

Take Nationals Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, who described Abbott as a “fearless warrior for the Liberal Party” and then went on to share some, uh, interesting views on the value of democracy.

“You know, you only go out in politics either two ways — your way or the voters’ way,” he told 7 News tonight. “And sometimes, sadly, it’s the voters’ way.”

Meanwhile, Julie Bishop said that while she’s “very sad” for Abbott, he kind of had it coming. “Come back to the issue of climate change,” she said. “He is a denier personified and out of step with his electorate. And same-sex marriage, where Warringah had one of the highest votes in support of same-sex marriage and Tony abstained — that did a lot of damage”.

“You have to be aligned to the aspirations and thoughts of your electorate on major issues. On two of them, same-sex marriage and climate change, Tony was not on the same page.”

Abbott himself, meanwhile, went out with typical grace: for the early part of the night, he hid in a board room at his post-election event, barring most media.

“I always knew it was going to be tough here in Warringah,” he said when he finally emerged. “And I can’t say that it doesn’t hurt to lose. But I decided back then in October of last year that, if I had to lose, so be it. I’d rather be a loser than a quitter.”

He then claimed that the Liberals are doing a great job at acting on climate change.

“I’m incredibly proud of all that I’ve done, obviously there are some things that, with the wisdom of hindsight might have been done definitely and better. But I’ve got to say I can look back on the last 25 years and I do look back on the last 25 years with immense pride
and satisfaction,” he concluded.

Bye Tony. It’s been real.