CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia’s super-fit Health Minster Tony Abbott, who was a champion university boxer, on Thursday laughed off being punched by a mental patient while visiting a hospital.
Abbott, 48, was punched in the face and kicked in the thigh when a patient lunged at him while he was touring a hospital for the criminally insane in southern city of Melbourne on Wednesday.
“Some people probably thought he had a sane moment, and that’s why he swung the punch at me,” Abbott, who was a champion boxer while a student at Oxford University, told Australian radio.
“Just at the moment when I was trying to figure out whether it was appropriate for health ministers to defend themselves, the staff had him well and truly bundled up and they were talking to him and calming him down.”
Well, I don’t know. Self defense by the minister could be politically bad but it also has the possibility of boosting his popularity by creating a cult of personality.