So what’s been the hottest topic of debate this week amongst the folks down in Canberra? Same-sex marriage? Budget responsibility? Pauline Hanson’s wildly xenophobic fear mongering? Nah. How about the origins of the Chicko Roll?
That’s right, while Malcolm and the rest of the parliamentary mob are getting used to making a slim lower house majority work and a Senate even fruitier than the last one, at least three of them have seen fit to use the nation’s most respected (ahem) soap box to verbally wrestle over where the iconic Aussie… um, food thing, comes from.
Did the humble, tastless, edible log originate in Bathurst, Bendigo or Wagga? This is an important question; these are dangerous times, voters!
“We aim to please in the central west, and if it is Tic Tacs or Nutella that you enjoy, and I have to confess I am partial to both, they were definitely made in Lithgow. Or if Australia’s iconic Chiko Roll is more to your liking … well they were made in Bathurst.” Nationals MP for Calare solemnly declared to parliament.
In response, fellow Nationals MP and Minister for Small Business Michael McCormack took to the ABC to defend the honour of his seat of Riverina with what seemed to be irrefutable evidence… the gold standard of Chiko Rolls.
“We have in our Riverina Museum in Wagga Wagga the Gold Chiko Roll given to us by the manufacturers, acknowledging the fact that Wagga Wagga is home of the Chiko Roll,” he said.
But that prompted Victorian Labor MP Lisa Chesters to call both men out with this apparent slam dunk for her seat of Bendigo:
“It’s just outrageous that these NSW MPs can try and claim credit for the Chiko Roll. It was invented in Bendigo by a Bendigonian,” she insisted.
Take that, you delusional, right-wing Chiko packaging deniers!
The nation remains divided.
Now, what is Pauline Hanson so freaked out about again?