Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a succinct, but perhaps inelegant foreign policy statement in Adelaide on Thursday when he said "nope, nope, nope" to resettling any Rohingya refugees in Australia -- and the Internet's reaction has been glorious.
Escaping persecution in Burma and Bangladesh, the Muslim minority have been stranded in boats at sea for weeks, as countries in the Asia Pacific region struggled with how to resolve the situation.
On Wednesday night, the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to temporarily take in the Rohingyas, the Guardian reported. The U.S. has also suggested it could shelter some of the group.
Abbott made it clear -- in fact nope-to-the-power-of-three clear -- Australia will not take any of the more than 8,000 Rohingyas. The prime minister said he feared giving encouragement to people looking to travel to Australia outside the proper channels.
"Australia will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think that they can get on a boat, that they can work with people smugglers to start a new life," he said.
“We are not going to do anything that will encourage people to get on boats. If we do the slightest thing to encourage people to get on the boats, this problem will get worse, not better."
The prime minister's three word policy declaration -- an unsurprising one, given his longtime position on turning back any refugee boats that approach Australian waters -- was of course immediately GIF'd, memed and all the other things one can do on the Internet.
Stop the Nopes! #nopenopenope— Tash (@jouljet) May 21, 2015
Nope nope nope: Abbott says Aus will not resettle refugees #nopenopenope #tonyabbott @laurabrierleyn pic.twitter.com/LGjndSaunS— inbetweenspaces (@inbetweenspaces) May 21, 2015
And we have winner already... #NopeNopeNope #AusPol via @whaddyareckon pic.twitter.com/DsVNY9C9PW— Kiera (@KieraGorden) May 21, 2015
This is no longer a parody #nopenopenope pic.twitter.com/vEAQR1lW27— Daniel Bromley (@bromley_daniel) May 21, 2015
Australia's "front door" #nopenopenope pic.twitter.com/Bw6YhGn1AI— Nick Henry (@NickAnarchistic) May 21, 2015
"Did you like your #Cadbury Dairy Milk and #Vegemite?" #NopeNopeNope#auspol #LeavesSameTasteInMouthAsYourGovernment pic.twitter.com/IWH6km04FL— david j hodder (@deejayhodder) May 21, 2015
Stop The Nopes. #NopeNopeNope— Vicki (@Iamverysmart) May 21, 2015
https://t.co/AE4YUIod1D The government's new minister for immigration #auspol #NopeNopeNope— Stephen Tyas (@stevieboyau) May 21, 2015
I wish my job was as easy as saying #NopeNopeNope— Ongmania (@ongmania) May 21, 2015