You have to admire the relentless optimism of our current prime minister Scott Morrison, who has responded to getting booed at the tennis as though he was actually being hailed by an arenaful of old friends.
“It’s a great tradition. I would be disappointed if they didn’t,” he straightfacedly told reporters on Monday. “Bob Hawke and everyone else got the same treatment at games.”
And not to nitpick but… look, no they didn’t.
As Scott Morrison appeears on the big screen…
John McEnroe: "What are they booing?"
Todd Woodbridge: "The Prime Minister."#Ausopen— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) January 20, 2019
Sure, other PMs have been booed but that booing tended to be a bit more… well, nuanced.
For example: Kevin Rudd was once memorably booed at a Canberra Raiders vs Brisbane Broncos game in Canberra, but that was less because the shine was going off his popularity than because he was a Broncos supporter in a partisan crowd.
Similarly, if we wanted to be generous we might put Tony Abbott’s savage booing at the 2014 NRL grand final was more because he’s a rugby union man and well known follower of the fancy-pants Manly Sea Eagles.
Morrison getting booed at the tennis can’t be explained away as a bunch of super-partisan Maria Sharapova fans furious as the PM cheering Ashleigh Barty.
And yes, John Howard got booed at sports events on the semi-regular – but despite what Morrison apparently thinks, Bob Hawke more often got bought drinks when he got along.
The footy-obsessed Julia Gillard always got warm welcomes at sports events, as did Malcolm Fraser (who was a massive Carlton fan, just like Robert Menzies) and Malcolm Turnbull.
"There's Scott Morrison, he'd kill for the approval rating Ash has right now" – Tony Jones on point #AusOpen
— Sarah Black (@_sjblack) January 20, 2019
Meanwhile Paul Keating, Gough Whitlam and Harold Holt didn’t much bother hiding their less-than-passionate interest in sport and their preference for the arts. For the record, they seldom got heckled at the opera.
So it’s possible that the PM was just being booed for the usual reasons people get booed.
But hey, maybe they were just saying “boo-orrison”?