Fed: If the budgie smugglers fit: Abbott gets down to business

AAP General News (Australia)
12-10-2009
Fed: If the budgie smugglers fit: Abbott gets down to business

CANBERRA, Dec 10 AAP - Tony Abbott reckons there's not much difference between being
a politician and a parish priest.

But you've got to ask, how many men of the cloth would get on radio and talk about
bums and groins?

The self-confessed "standard" politician, who's become infamous for appearing in the
media in his brief swimming trunks, was given more swimming apparel during a radio interview
in Townsville on Thursday.

Steve Price, from Townsville radio station 4TO FM, presented Mr Abbott with the new
swimmers, as well as a "big pair of socks" ... for padding.

Asked if the gift would fit, Mr Abbott said: "You know, I'm just looking at the bum
and the groin at the moment."

It's the kind of down-to-earth comment now expected of Mr Abbott, who spent time in
the seminary in his youth.

He's often explained the reason he didn't become a priest was because he couldn't be
"poor, obedient and celibate for the rest of my life".

"Then I got into politics and I discovered just how much like being a parish priest
it is," he said.

Mr Abbott is in Townsville to see an algal synthesiser at James Cook University, one
of many initiatives to reduce carbon emissions that he'll consider before announcing his
climate change policy early next year.

AAP so/sb/dep

KEYWORD: LIBERALS ABBOTT

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