‘Punch him’: Truth behind infamous pause in Tony Abbott, Mark Riley interview
It’s one of the most agonising moments between a politician and a journalist in Australia’s history. Now Tony Abbott has revealed the “scoop” behind it.
It’s one of the most bizarre – and agonising – encounters between a politician and a journalist in Australia’s history.
In the courtyard of Parliament House on February 8, 2011, Seven News reporter Mark Riley questioned then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott over his saying “sh*t happens” about the death of an Australian soldier during a visit to Afghanistan.
After watching footage of Mr Abbott’s comments, Riley asked him: “Well? Well, that’s about the day that (Lance Corporal) Jared MacKinney was killed.”
“Yeah, look, you’ve taken this out of context. You weren’t there,” Mr Abbott responded.
“I would never seek to make light of the death of an Australian soldier.”
Riley then asked: “OK, well, tell me, what’s the context? And if it’s out of context, what is the context?”
Rather than respond, Mr Abbott proceeded to wordlessly stare at Riley for 24 seconds, a seemingly endless moment that became known as “The Stare-Off”.
“You’re not saying anything, Tony,” Riley said, prompting him to answer.
In the 14 years since, the moment (which can be watched in the video above) has been viewed some half a million times on YouTube.
Now, it’s found new life – and a whole new audience – thanks to the ABC’s three-part docuseries, Civic Duty, hosted by celebrated political journalist and podcaster Annabel Crabbe.
As part of the series, Mr Abbott and Riley shed light on what was going through their heads during the infamous interaction.
A clip of the interview, shared by the ABC to its Facebook page on Thursday, swiftly went viral, drumming up some 151,000 views and hundreds of comments.
“One of the funniest political bits of TV ever …” one person wrote.
“Anyone who has seen that interview knew what Abbott was thinking. No poker face there, he wanted to smack Mark. Great television and well played by both,” a second commented.
‘I was thinking, what the hell?’
In an interview for the program, Mr Abbott said he was fighting the urge to “hit” Riley over his line of questioning.
A clip of the segment, shared to the ABC’s Facebook page overnight,
“Mark Riley wanted to talk about my visit, my recent visit to Afghanistan … and he wanted to create a ‘gotcha’ moment,” the former prime minister said.
“Now, what Mark Riley tried to do was to take out of context that expression – ‘sh*t happens’ – and present me as somehow making light of the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney. Honestly, it was a contemptible thing to do.”
Riley, for his part, stressed that the interview “was no ambush”; it had been arranged with Mr Abbott’s press secretary at the time, and the leader was aware of what Riley intended to ask him. Channel 7 “had to fight the Defence Department tooth and nail for months to get that vision”.
“Imagine if Julia Gillard had said that. Imagine if – this is what I thought – imagine if Kevin Rudd had said that,” Riley said.
“I mean, imagine if John Howard … and John would never have said that. You know, you can’t conceive of it being said … I was just bemused … you can see it in my face.
“(I thought), you’ve arranged the time for this interview, you know what I was gonna ask you about, and you don’t have any response?”
“It took me quite a while to work out exactly what (Riley) was driving at,” Mr Abbott claimed.
“And I thought, ‘What do I do here?’”
Riley said he wondered, “What the hell? Is he gonna thump you? … I just thought he was buffering.”
His thoughts weren’t that far from Mr Abbott’s own.
“(Do) I tell him to get stuffed? I get up and walk out? I hit him?” he recalled.
“So I thought silence was the best response … Now you know. That’s a scoop for you.”
Broadcaster Ben Fordham, who also appeared in the Civic Duty episode, effusively stated that “Tony was thinking of punching (Riley)”.
“He was thinking of punching Mark Riley. Slog him in the head,” Fordham said.
“And all he could think was, ‘Don’t punch him’. So if you’re wondering what was going on in Tony Abbott’s head, I mean to tell ya, that’s what he was thinking about.”
Originally published as ‘Punch him’: Truth behind infamous pause in Tony Abbott, Mark Riley interview
