This year we had a prince become a knight, a speaker undone by a chopper, and a Prime Minister bestowed with the addendum ”ILF” and called “Daddy” by the youth. The end of the year signals a time to reflect on the year that was and vote on the sexiest pollies, the Person of the Year and the Crikey Arsehat of the Year. This year we have included many suggestions from our readers, who helped with both surprising and completely expected nominations.
We believe that new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is in an ideal position to take back the crown as sexiest male politician, after losing out to Scott Ludlam last year. Ludlam has had a quiet year, but Turnbull has risen to the top job in the country, allowing many voters to issue a sigh of relief. And let’s face it, power is kind of hot.
Andrew Hastie, the MP whose byelection fell just after the spill, is a fresh addition to the list, with one reader giving this reason for his nomination:
“It’s like a committee of gay men were asked to design a parody of a straight man — muscled, wavy hair, nice eyes, dimpled smile, family man, army uniform, son of a preacher man. Is it wrong that the Christian fundie thing just makes him even hotter to me? Give Hastie your votes this year before he morphs into an unlikeable Andrew Nikolic-type.”
Hastie isn’t the only new entrant from the Coalition; the George Clooney of Gippsland Darren Chester is also on the list of nominees. Readers who make a habit of following good-looking politicians will notice a marked absence from this year’s list. Despite concerted campaigning within the Crikey bunker, Canada’s Prime Minister for Muscles Justin Trudeau is ineligible for the vote, as it only includes Australian federal politicians. Trudeau is, however, nominated for Crikey’s Person of The Year, after naming a 50% female cabinet, and personally welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada (he has pledged to take 25,000 from the war-torn nation by February).
Other nominees for person of the year include footballer Adam Goodes, family violence campaigner Rosie Batty, journalist Peter Greste and television host Waleed Aly. The full list is here.
Now to the nominees for Crikey’s Arsehat of The Year, where nominations from our readers led overwhelmingly in one direction — Tony Abbott. This year the former PM named Prince Philip as a knight, ate a raw onion (twice!) and after promising that he wouldn’t be sniping or undermining Malcolm Turnbull’s government, moved on to do exactly that. To avoid a landslide victory, Crikey has awarded Tony Abbott a lifetime award for Arsehattery, recognising that his long career of gaffes and stupidity could not be narrowed down to one arbitrary 12-month period. Instead we offer you arsehats who have applied their skills in many areas. Peter Dutton, George Brandis and David Leyonhjelm are just a few politicians, while Miranda Devine and Mark Latham also feature on the list. And Donald Trump spat the dummy when he was not named Time’s Person of the Year, but you can give him an honour just as great — Crikey Arsehat. It’s been a big year — get your votes in here before Friday.
It may be sweet of you, Melissa, to sugar coat the disastrous rising costs of our unsustainable Health Care systems, but we wouldn’t be in such a financial mess if only previous Governments had the courage to try to do something about it, would we.