Tony Abbott was left contemplating a night in the bush.
The leader of the Australian opposition party, Tony Abbott, sparked a major security alert this week when he went missing in the outback for several hours.
Mr Abbott had been on a quad bike tour 350km west of Alice Springs to discuss opportunities for Aboriginal landowners. He left Kings Creek Station with a small group including two Australian journalists, to search for sacred Aboriginal sites.
The group became detached from their guide, pastoralist Ian Conway when Mr Conway and an Aboriginal landowner went off in search of a bush narcotic – all in the name of research of course! After a couple of hours passed with no sign of them returning and with no real idea of how to get back to Kings Creek Station, the group attempted to reach their base via satellite phone failed as no-one was quite sure how to work it. It was the same with the mobile phone when Mr Abbott attempted to text his press secretary Claire Kimball. He couldn’t figure out how to put spaces in between the words and in the end, the text, reading “WERELOSTNEARFOSSILCREEK” failed to send.
The group were contemplating surviving the cold of an outback night dressed in only t-shirts and shorts when Mr Conway finally re-appeared and the group finally made it back in the dark. Just what had kept Mr Conway and his Aboriginal friend so long is a mystery and no-one knows if they found their narcotic plant.
Suggestions that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, alarmed by the upturn in the polls in Mr Abbotts favour, had planned the whole thing are completely unfounded of course!
Mr Abbott’s political career nearly came to an abrupt end just last month when he was involved in a near collision with a truck on a treacherous stretch of the Princes Highway in Victoria. Luckily the truck, which had been threatening to overturn onto Mr Abbotts car, managed to stay upright and pull onto the hard shoulder. Ironically Mr Abbott was in the area to deliver a briefing on road safety.
Recent opinion polls show a plunge in Kevin Rudd’s popularity whilst the maverick Mr Abbott has a 45% approval rating, which is up by 34% from December. Mr Rudd may have been hoping no doubt, that Mr Abbott stayed lost, just until after the election!
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