Deposed Australian prime minister sends his final message via fax machine

By Nidhi Prakash  |  September 15, 2015 | 8:02pm
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Yesterday, Tony Abbott was ousted as prime minister of Australia by his own party. Today, he decided for some reason to use a fax machine to submit his resignation letter, Business Insider Australia reports. We’ll never know the inner workings of this brilliant mind, but was he trying to tell Australia something in his final act as leader?

What statement was the beloved onion-eater trying to make by choosing a facsimile machine over, say, email or the traditional way prime ministers resign–with an in-person visit to the governor general’s residence?

It might have been a pointed message to the guy who took his job. Australia’s new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, used to own one of Australia’s largest Internet Service Providers, and resigned from the job of Communications Minister to stage his coup.

Or a shoutout to the U.S.’s Librarian of Congress, James Billington, who has a hand in some major communications policy, but insists on communicating with his staff via fax, according to the Washington Post.

Australians were not surprised when they found out about the fax:

https://twitter.com/filthydancer/status/643705362852409344

More likely, it’s just another odd Abbott moment to add to the list as we look back on his two years running Australia.

 
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