Ex-Australian PM defends 'reasonable' Trump against 'haters'
Former prime minster of Australia and long-time lover of raw onions Tony Abbott called Donald Trump's political stance "reasonable enough" and defended his proposed tax cuts and defence funding against "Trump haters" on Thursday.
The comments came on Twitter after a week of Trump-related sledging in Australian politics. Which is odd, because this is Australia we're talking about. Not America.
On Tuesday, two politicians got into a heated on-air argument (that kept going even as they were leaving the building) over Trump's sexual misconduct.
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Then Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten called the Republican presidential nominee "entirely unsuitable" for public office and later he was called a "revolting slug" by a state MP. And now this.
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Following a Sky News interview in which conservative figure Tony Abbott referred to Trump's supporters as "not deplorables" but "decent people" and spurned the "Trump haters" on Twitter, the current leader of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, responded with both ambivalence and a suitable amount of shade.
"It is a vibrant democracy both here and in the United States and I'm sure Mr Abbott has carefully read all of Donald Trump's policies before he made that comment," Turnbull said in an interview with 3AW Radio. "But I am not going to buy into the policy debate in the United States."
Based on recent events, Malcolm Turnbull (who previously said Trump's comments about women were "loathsome") is literally the only person in Australian politics not willing to "buy into" the debate.
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On Thursday, the New South Wales upper house backed a motion by Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham condemning Trump's sexual misconduct "which clearly describe sexual assault" and calling him a "revolting slug," which is a great insult TBH.
In the same Sky News chat, Abbott's fellow interviewee, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, called Donald Trump a "dropkick" whose comments on women were "abhorrent" and "indefensible."
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Despite defending Trump in general, Tony Abbott made it clear that Trump's comments about women were wrong. "The tapes that have been playing over the last few days are gross, gross beyond belief and I think they are completely indefensible," he said. Finally, something we can all agree on.
When it comes to Donald Trump, America's antipodean allies have literally no chill. They're unravelling before our eyes and we can't look away.
America to Australia:
Topics Donald Trump Elections
Jerico Mandybur is the editor of Mashable Australia. Previously, she worked as a digital editor at SBS, Oyster Mag, MTV and ASOS. Tweet her at @jerico_m.
