This was published 9 years ago
Prime Minister Tony Abbott pictured biting into an onion ... again
By Georgina Mitchell
Whoops, he's done it again.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been caught on camera munching into another onion, after he made headlines in March this year for taking a bite into a brown onion, skin and all.
Tony Abbott bites in to a member of the onion family, possibly a spring onion, at a Queensland onion farm in 2011.Credit: ABC News
In pictures that transfixed the nation, Mr Abbott was touring an onion farm in Tasmania when he took a bite from the bitter vegetable with a straight face.
He repeated the display a week later, when he met with a representative from the onion industry in Parliament House, reportedly taking a few bites from another brown onion and describing it as "tasty".
A biting taste: spring onions.Credit: Jennifer Soo
But that wasn't the first time the Prime Minister has performed the odd act, according to archival footage unearthed on Wednesday, which shows Mr Abbott has been sampling raw onions for at least four years.
In a short video posted by ABC News to video platform Vine, Mr Abbott - who was then Opposition Leader - can be seen biting gamely into the raw produce as a farmer and colleagues watch on.
The object of his culinary curiosity, tentatively described by the ABC as "another member of the onion family", appears to be a spring onion.
Mr Abbott takes three bites of the vegetable as cameras click in the background.
The video was watched more than 50 thousand times in an hour after it was posted, showing Mr Abbott isn't the only one with an onion appetite.
Though the incident happened at an onion farm in Queensland in 2011, it was unearthed when an ABC staffer was looking for file footage of the Prime Minister.
After his sampling of an onion in March, Mr Abbott faced days of questions that essentially boiled down to: why?
Tony Abbott indulges in some fresh produce earlier this year.
"I thought it was very important that I should show my support for the great products that the Tasmanian agricultural industry produces and, you know, I enjoy onions," Mr Abbott said at the time.
"I normally have them cooked on the barbecue, but I enjoy onions!"
If anyone needed convincing, this latest footage should remove any doubt.