He didn’t take much prompting.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, threw back a schooner of beer in about six seconds prompted by shouts of “skol, skol” from a university football team celebrating their awards night on Saturday.
After offering him a collective cheers, the University of Technology Australian Rules players surrounded Abbott, cheering him on and clapping as he downed the glass at the Royal Oak Hotel in Double Bay.
The team, the UTS Bats, posted photos of the moment on their social media page, captioning one: “Tones at the Bat Cave”.
In another comment, the club wrote; “Great to have Prime Minister Tony Abbott in attendance for presentations tonight at the Bat Cave – he almost has Hawkey covered,” referring to the former prime minister Bob Hawke, who downed a beer during a test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2012.
It’s not the first time Abbott’s drinking has gained public attention.
He was mercilessly ridiculed in 2010 when he ordered a “shandy lite” during his election campaign, while his then opponent, Julia Gillard, ordered a full-strength ale.
“If I could have a shandy of light with about 60% lemonade, OK?” Abbott asked the bartender at the time.
Commenting on the video, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, would only say; “I’m just pleased that Tony Abbott’s learning to drink beer without adding lemonade to it.”
The prime minister seems to have conflicted views about alcohol.
In an opinion piece for the Courier Mail in 2010, Abbott called for action on binge drinking culture in Australia which he wrote “has become all too prevalent among youngsters”.
In a 2013 breakfast radio interview, the prime minister described himself as a “grog monster.”
According to the Australian Women’s Weekly, Abbott just happened to be at the pub on Saturday night at the same time as the Bats football club.
“We were doing the presentations and we line up all the best players from all of the grades and they are about to skol a schooner of VB,” the team coach, Simon Carrodus, said.
“I walked over to Tony and said ‘will you come over and have a beer with the best players as part of the presentation?’
“He said ‘absolutely no problem.’
“He grabs the microphone and gives a speech, which went along the lines of: ‘well isn’t this a real treat, I’ve been a rugby man all my life but now I finally get to hang out with some real footballers’ to which of course the crowd went crazy.”
Despite the AFL making efforts to raise awareness about the impact of binge drinking among young people in particular, the AFL Sydney praised Abbott on Twitter.
Well done @UTSBats. What an effort, Tony Abbott in fine form in traditional beer skolling contest. You have our vote! @dailytelegraph
— AFLSydney (@AFLSydney) April 19, 2015
Others criticised the prime minister for gladly downing the beer despite having spoken out about the dangers of binge drinking and alcohol-related violence.
His antics drew the attention of international media outlets, including BBC world news, which reported it was unclear what affect it would have on Abbott’s approval rating, which currently sits at 32%.
The director of the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth, Professor Mike Daube, was scathing of the video. He said it showed alcohol reform was “just not on the government’s radar”.
“I think it’s quite bizarre – extraordinarily poor judgement,” Daube said. “If we are going to change the binge drinking culture, the last thing we need is prime ministers role modelling skolling. It’s the kind of behaviour you might expect from boozy 20-year-olds, not 57-year-old prime ministers.”
