Australian PM skols a beer

Continuing a long tradition for Australia’s Prime Ministers, Anthony Albanese, who is enjoying record high approval ratings for a new leader, downed a beer while attending a concert in Sydney.

Quietly enjoying @gangofyouths with the Prime Minister at the @Enmore_Theatre @AlboMP pic.twitter.com/iikYv7vBwc

— Rhanna Collins (@rhanna_collins) August 22, 2022

Albanese, who assumed office in May this year, was at the Gang of Youths concert on Monday night when the crowd cheered him on to drink his beer in one – and he obliged. The moment was captured on camera by Rhanna Collins, head of indigenous news at National Indigenous Television.

The Australian Labor Party Leader has proved to be a popular change to his predecessor, Scott Morrison, who is currently under investigation for secretly appointing himself to ministerial positions. At the end of July, Albanese’s approval rating stood at 61% according to a poll published by The Australian, the highest level in 35 years for an incoming Prime Minister. Whether his decision to down his drink prolongs this honeymoon period remains to be seen.

For those unfamiliar with Australian slang, ‘skolling’/’sculling’ means downing or chugging a drink, and originally derives from the Scandinavian toast ‘skol’, coming to Australia by way of Scottish and Irish settlers.

It is something of a tradition for the country’s Prime Ministers – in 2015, Tony Abbot downed his drink in seven seconds, an act which was criticised by some anti-drinking campaigners as “problematic”.

However, the Antipodean leader most celebrated for his drinking prowess was Bob Hawke, who famously finished off a yard of ale (1.4 litres) at The Turf Tavern in Oxford in 11 seconds while he was a Rhodes Scholar in 1954. At the time the feat was a world record, though the current record is a stomach churning five seconds.