The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation immediately made the video available online, including on now-defunct social media platform
Vine where videos were presented in a six-second loop. Professor Tim Highfield noted that the presentation of the video on the platform "in its raw form – like the onion," was "an ideal match between footage and platform," and that "the recurring sight underlines its surrealism, warranting repeat viewing without making it any less inexplicable. The video circulated widely online; On
Twitter, the
hashtags #onion and
#oniongate trended widely on 13 March. In April 2019, four years later,
National Party of Australia resources minister
Matt Canavan emulated the video of Abbott by biting into a similarly raw and unpeeled onion himself. In this video, Canavan stated that the taste was "not as bad as [he] thought." He uploaded the video to Twitter with the caption "maybe [Abbott] is on to something here."
2015 leadership spill and #putoutyouronions Abbott was ousted from office on 14 September 2015 when he lost a
leadership spill within his own party after growing concern that he had become unpopular. Thousands of social media users responded to this on the hashtag #putoutyouronions, in which they placed onion bulbs on their front porches and in one instance outside
Parliament House, Canberra. and
scarf tributes to Adelaide football coach
Phil Walsh with #putoutyourscarves. In 2017, a bust of Abbott at
Prime Ministers Avenue was draped with a crown of onions, likely in reference to the video. == See also ==