Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every year on Thanksgiving, the US President gathers in the rose garden with his advisers, family and members of the US press gallery for the annual turkey pardon. It's a great ceremony. The president picks out one turkey out of thousands and saves it from execution. It's a unifying event. It brings the whole nation together with a feeling of sentimental attachment to the pardoned turkey. This year the run-off was between an 18-kilogram beauty by the name of Peas and a 19-kilogram beast by the name of Carrots. There was an election. Peas won. There was a dispute. There was a re-election and Peas won again.

It appears that the practice has lost something in translation across the Atlantic, because this year when the Prime Minister conducted his own version of a turkey pardon there was no up-swelling of gratitude when he saved the member for Hughes. Far from being a unifying event— (Time expired)