‘When a real mother screamed, young Abbott didn’t hesitate’
Welcome to the column where you provide the content. GetUp got down in the (surf) gutter with ads suggesting a budgie-smugglered Tony Abbott would let swimmers drown. The resulting uproar saw the ads yanked and everyone from Zali Stegall to Bill Shorten frantically distancing themselves. Tony (not Abbott) pointed out:
“Meanwhile, in the real world back in 1977, when a real mother screamed for someone to rescue her child from treacherous seas at Victoria’s Gunnamatta beach, a young Abbott didn’t hesitate to run into the surf unassisted and rescue the child.
“Greg Sheridan, who was with Abbott on the day, told the story years later. From memory, the beach was fairly deserted and even Abbott, a strong swimmer, thought it was too rough to go swimming. Sheridan was a poor swimmer so Abbott went in alone, grabbed the kid, swam with the rip then eventually brought him in. He played down the mother’s gratitude and wanted nothing more to be made of it. “
