# "Nothing but bush"? I think you're talking about what's between your ears, Tony Abbott. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 14, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639 "2014-11-14T19:53:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/21 "2014-11-16T16:30:17Z")
Merged duplicate threads. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/22 "2014-11-16T16:35:34Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Merged duplicate threads. Thanks **Miller**. With Australia on the world stage right now, and Abbott displaying his ignorance about climate change for all to see, there’s no reason to restrict this thread to his ignorance about Australian history. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/23 "2014-11-16T17:27:23Z")
To continue the ridicule pile on, try a google image search for “tony abbot memes” [https://www.google.com/search?q=tony+abbott+memes&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=td1oVISlFoP9ugSb94DoCg&ved=0CCEQsAQ&biw=1511&bih=930](https://www.google.com/search?q=tony+abbott+memes&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=td1oVISlFoP9ugSb94DoCg&ved=0CCEQsAQ&biw=1511&bih=930) ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/24 "2014-11-17T02:33:21Z")
LA Times article: “Australia suffers another cringeworthy moment during G20 summit” > **[Australia suffers another cringeworthy moment during G20 summit](https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australia-suffers-another-cringeworthy-moment-during-g20-summit-20141117-11nxg9.html)** > > For Australians it's not so bad - most of the time - to be so far away, so overlooked, so seemingly insignificant as to almost never factor in major international news. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/25 "2014-11-17T03:36:34Z")
To answer the question about how Abbott was elected - at the time of the election, being “not Labor” was enough. They had self-destructed. I was a lifelong Liberal voter prior to the last election, but Abbott and his team were (and still are) so awful that I couldn’t bring myself to vote for them. He in particular is a total disgrace. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/26 "2014-11-17T04:07:14Z")
I made [this image](https://twitter.com/GuanoLad/status/534191816480800768) a few months ago when _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_ came out. It seems appropriate to bring it to everyone’s attention once again. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/27 "2014-11-17T04:08:56Z")
Interesting that not one person is prepared to defend Abbot on here, makes the pitting too easy. Heres a classic compilation of Abbot gaffs from US media that came out back in July: https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x1y1ez7 ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/28 "2014-11-17T07:47:17Z")
Another video from ABC on the “shirt fronting” debacle. Despite Abbots macho rhetoric he proved himself to be just a gutless wonder when it came to actually meeting Putin: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3RhXpkgqPk) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/29 "2014-11-17T08:47:52Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Despite Abbots macho rhetoric he proved himself to be just a gutless wonder when it came to actually meeting Putin One of the archetypal traits of a bully - tough around the weak, but gutless if there’s a risk of meeting his match. Abbott physically bullied people when he was younger (there are plenty of stories from his university days to back that up) and now he’s just a different type of bully. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/30 "2014-11-17T08:48:03Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > How the fuck did this knuckle head get elected? From his threat to “shirt front” Putin, to his ignorant statements denying the existence of the aboriginal cultures in Australia before white settlement, to his “coal is the future” idiocy: Everytime this over-privileged retard opens his mouth he causes the international opinion of Australia to go further into the shit. > > Please people of the world don’t judge us by the gibbering of this cretin. > > His latest attempt to destroy any respect for our country is to blather on to the G20 leaders about taxation on doctors in Australia (WTF???) and impotently attempting to block any discussion of climate change at the G20. Obama very properly put him in his place and showed him what real power is like. > > Australia once had a reputation as a fair country where anyone could give it a go if they worked hard. Our country was built on immigration. We are all boat people. Now the UN wants to take Australia to court for human rights abuses because of our immoral policy of locking up refugees indefinitely on pacific islands. > > I know there are plenty of Australians on here, feel free to pile in and vent. I leave you with 20 of Abbots worst quotes to keep things rolling. > > [http://whatistherundude.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/20-quotes-from-tony-abbott-to-remind-you-why-he-shouldnt-be-prime-minister/](http://whatistherundude.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/20-quotes-from-tony-abbott-to-remind-you-why-he-shouldnt-be-prime-minister/) Except for the aboriginals, of course. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/31 "2014-11-17T09:23:10Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > To answer the question about how Abbott was elected - at the time of the election, being “not Labor” was enough. They had self-destructed. Be that as it may, electing a man-shaped gila monster was not the answer ! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/32 "2014-11-17T10:04:58Z")
[quote=“coremelt, post:28, topic:704639”] Another video from ABC on the “shirt fronting” debacle. Despite Abbots macho rhetoric he proved himself to be just a gutless wonder when it came to actually meeting Putin: [/QUOTE] [Meanwhile, _Canada’s_ Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who made no such boast, did, in fact, take it to Putin, quite bluntly.](http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/stephen-harper-at-g20-tells-vladimir-putin-to-get-out-of-ukraine-1.2836382) ---
**Author:** ![chronometer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@chronometer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chronometer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/33 "2014-11-17T10:05:00Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Be that as it may, electing a man-shaped gila monster was not the answer ! :mad: That is a most heinous insult to gila monsters. You should be ashamed. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/34 "2014-11-17T11:05:20Z")
Every time I hear Australians bitching about Abbott I just wonder, “well what the fuck did you expect?” I remember before he was elected reading about some of the awful and stupid things he had done, but then you guys went and elected him anyway. You elected an idiot and now you have your idiot, no point acting all surprised about it. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/35 "2014-11-17T11:12:43Z")
Bucketybuck I sure as shit didn’t vote for the Moron so I accept no responsibility. “Washington Post Says Tony Abbot becoming one of the world’s most hated PM’s” [http://www.news.com.au/national/the-washington-post-says-tony-abbott-is-becoming-one-of-the-worlds-most-hated-pms/story-fncynjr2-1226928444994](http://www.news.com.au/national/the-washington-post-says-tony-abbott-is-becoming-one-of-the-worlds-most-hated-pms/story-fncynjr2-1226928444994) ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/36 "2014-11-17T11:40:45Z")
Is there a parallel with the claims Columbus discovered America - I have wondered how I might feel about being ‘discovered’ by a European … grateful, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/37 "2014-11-18T05:54:16Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Every time I hear Australians bitching about Abbott I just wonder, “well what the fuck did you expect?” > > I remember before he was elected reading about some of the awful and stupid things he had done, but then you guys went and elected him anyway. You elected an idiot and now you have your idiot, no point acting all surprised about it. I tend to agree. As i said in the OP, i’m not a fan of the conservative coalition even when they _don’t_ have a fucking moron in charge, and i’ll never understand how even solid coalition voters could bring themselves to vote for Abbott. This observation is pretty much true, though: > [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > To answer the question about how Abbott was elected - at the time of the election, being “not Labor” was enough. They had self-destructed. If the only opposition to Labor at the last election had been a half-eaten meat pie, Labor still might have lost the election. In addition to all the other crap mentioned in this thread, the ABC is also about to feel the sting of a broken election promise. Abbott said, straight out and without equivocation, that there would be no cuts to the natio0nal broadcaster, and yet here we are looking at a cut that will eliminate about 400-500 jobs, and significantly reduce the ABC’s ability to provide quality original programming while also keeping up with new technology. At least Rupert Murdoch and the other media barons are happy, though, at the prospect of a hobble ABC. Some of them want to shut it down altogether. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/38 "2014-11-18T06:30:45Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Interesting that not one person is prepared to defend Abbot on here, makes the pitting too easy. When Europeans colonized various places one rationale they used was that the natives weren’t using the land properly. There’s a term for this, but it escapes me. Prime real estate was basically going to waste to ignorant simpletons, in their view, so they may as well take it and put it to productive use for farming, cities, roads, and so on. From what I understand the Australian natives were mostly HGs living a pseudo-nomadic lifestyle with old school stone age technology. So, “nothing but bush” doesn’t sound all that wrong from that POV. Not particularly PC though. Also mildly perverted. I’m guessing if Abbott was American he’d say how the continent was a vast untamed forest primeval dotted with fields and some pesky Injun villages. But then Europe brought glorious Western civilization. The natives couldn’t even dream of the glories of strip malls. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/39 "2014-11-18T10:08:29Z")
From across the ditch we really can’t fathom why you abandoned Julia Gillard? And I say that as a conservative right winger whom you’d expect to support Tony Abbott. But this guy appears to be a nasty version of George W Bush, writ small. Bush at least had a common humanity but Abbott…at this moment words fail me. Climate change is not an economic issue? Australia was terra nullius? Really?? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639/40 "2014-11-18T10:29:16Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > From across the ditch we really can’t fathom why you abandoned Julia Gillard? And I say that as a conservative right winger whom you’d expect to support Tony Abbott. We _didn’t_. Four times in three years, the politicians of the Labour party voted amongst themselves to decide who would be Prime Minister of the country. This plague of backstabbing is a big part of why Labour was considered unfit to lead the country. Abbott is equally contemptable in his own way, but at least somebody voting for Abbott could say with some certainty that they were actually voting for Abbott. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nothing-but-bush-i-think-youre-talking-about-whats-between-your-ears-tony-abbott/704639.md?page=3)