"Tony's Onion" tote

Despite the intellectualization and commercialization of election strategy, elections are ultimately won in single moments - John Hewson failing to explain how much a birthday cake would cost under his proposed changes to GST, Mark Latham’s decision to shake John Howards hand like a member of the WWE, Scott Morrison’s declaration that God will strike down all that oppose him at the next election (that one hasn’t happened yet).

A particular moment occurred on a cold morning in Tasmania in 2015. Then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was handed an onion, likely by an advisor who thought “holding this onion will make for a good photo, as long as he doesn’t do something no-one has ever done before and take a deep, eye-watering bite out of the thing.”

Tony Abbott then took a deep, eye-watering bite out of the thing, a symbolic act no leader had attempted before him, nor any leader dares attempt to this day. As footage of the bite was splashed across morning television the nation observed a unified shudder, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and said “just once, can’t we have a prime minister who is a human being”.

Tony Abbott was removed from leadership six months later.