Abbott: Malcolm Turnbull invented the Australian Internet
Remember that urban myth that Al Gore once claimed to have invented the internet?
Well, Tony Abbott has just shanked his colleague and (ahem) potential leadership challenger Malcolm Tunbull by making a similar claim on his behalf.
In a speech to the party room – and yes, it is a speech, as in prepared remarks now sitting on Abbot’s website, not something off the cuff, he today had the following to say:
“We have a strong and credible broadband policy because the man who has devised it, the man who will implement it virtually invented the Internet in this country. Thank you so much, Malcolm Turnbull.”
Turnbull certainly invested in OzEmail in the early days, but Dr Mumbo suspects he’d never claim to have invented the Australian internet.
But give it a few days, and that’s how people will remember it.
Well played, Tony Abbott. Well played.
5pm update: Video of the speech is now online. Abbott’s line gets a laugh. Is it a riff on the Gore myth? Maybe. Not that it’s being received on social media and news sites that way though.
Make up your own mind:
Remember in the pre-social media days when hyperbole was just… hyperbole..? Move on people.
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And George Brandis invented the wheel.
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@Journo, remember when holding politicians to account for what they said prior to being elected to the highest office in the land was a thing the media was meant to do? No?
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Admittedly Abbott needs a better joke writer but it was clearly meant as satire and if somebody couldn’t see that then I think the problem’s with them, really.
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I can also remember when Prime Minister Gillard pronounced it “hyperbowl”.
Ah….memories!
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Terribly cheap shot. Your red blinkers are showing.
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It’s hard to tell if it was meant as satire or not, as Abbott’s boxox filled features render him incapable of providing facial expression to help with the interpretation . . .
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Abbot truly has foot in mouth disease.
Sooner tunrbull replaces him the better
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It is not meant as satire, and Abbott has used the line before. He genuinely believes it is a selling point for his 2nd rate broadband policy
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I actually think this is a clever play by Mr Abbott – plant the seed properly and the new ‘fact’ eventually creeps into the consciousness of middle Australia, but if he gets called out on it he can say “but I was obviously joking…”
Anyone reading a transcript of the speech will read it as fact, not a joke.
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Abbott is fast becoming the conspiracy theorists favourite poster boy…
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Don’t forget, Abbott was a journalist. He knows if you repeat something long enough people start to believe there is truth to it.
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@ Stephen… I believe if you repeat something long enough people start to believe there is truth to it. And I believe if you repeat something long enough people start to believe there is truth to it
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