"Ironbar" Nickname
Tuckey was one of the most controversial figures in Australian federal politics. In 1967, while a publican in Carnarvon, he was convicted of assault after striking an Aboriginal man with a length of steel cable. It was alleged that the man was being pinned to the ground at the time. He has had the nickname "Ironbar" ever since.
In 1986 Tuckey taunted the then Labor Treasurer, Paul Keating, in Parliament about a former girlfriend called "Christine," leading Keating to call him "a piece of criminal garbage." In one notorious exchange, Tuckey told Keating: "You are an idiot, you are a hopeless nong", to which Keating replied: "Shut up! Sit down and shut up, you pig... Why do you not shut up, you clown?... This man has a criminal intellect... this clown continues to interject in perpetuity." A furious Keating demanded that newly installed Liberal Party leader John Howard discipline Tuckey, but he refused. Keating then promised to make Howard "wear his leadership like a crown of thorns". Keating and Howard's relationship, previously a civil one, deteriorated to the point where the two men refused to speak to one another. Reportedly, the last time the two men talked was when Keating stormed into the Opposition Leader's office, cursed him out for not disciplining Tuckey, and walked out.
Read more about this topic: Wilson Tuckey
Famous quotes containing the word nickname:
“A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)