Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has revealed he drank five bowls of kava in Vanuatu a day before downing a more potent Micronesian version of the traditional Pacific drink, forcing him to hospital.
Key points:
- A visibly ill Michael McCormack was helped into a car by staff and police before being rushed to a medical clinic
- The incident meant he could not continue with other Australian MPs to Palau
- The bi-partisan parliamentary delegation has now finished its tour of the Pacific
The Nationals frontbencher has returned to Australia where he’s described going “cross-eyed” and throwing up after finishing a ceremonial shell of local kava known as “sakau”, which he sculled in front of Micronesia’s president and assembled dignitaries.
“I drank down the whole lot in one hit,” Mr McCormack told reporters after arriving home in Australia.
“Now in the South Pacific, you tip some on the ground out of respect for the gods, and you drink the rest in a mouthful or two, but drinking in one gulp. It’s not as potent as what we encountered up at Micronesia.”
“It just hit me. Overwhelming. It’s like a sedative. Like a drunken feeling,” the Shadow Minister for the Pacific explained.
Throughout this week’s tour of three Pacific nations, a bi-partisan parliamentary delegation led by Foreign Minister Penny Wong was welcomed with traditional ceremonies which included the Australian MPs drinking kava.
On Wednesday the cross-party group arrived in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) for a meeting with President David Panuelo, followed by a formal reception marking 35 years of diplomatic relations with Australia.
Vision captured by an ABC television camera shows the visibly ill Riverina MP being attended to by travelling staff members, before being helped to a waiting car by DFAT staff and an AFP officer.
He was then rushed from the Congress building to a nearby medical clinic for observations and tests, before being discharged and spending the night in the Australian ambassador’s residence.
The medical drama meant the Shadow Minister for the Pacific was unable to fly onto Palau, the final scheduled destination of the parliamentary delegation’s four-day trip.
Minister for the Pacific Pat Conroy was also stranded in FSM for the night after his Air Force jet broke down meaning he was unable to separately return to Canberra for Thursday’s parliamentary sitting.
Both men were collected the following day by the delegation which flew back to FSM from Palau, before returning to Australia on Friday morning.
Mr McCormack joked DFAT would now need to enact the “McCormack principle” by warning politicians about sakau consumption before future Micronesian visits.
“I actually think it’ll be on the next briefing papers — I think it’ll be in bold, I think it’ll be underlined, may even be printed in red,” he laughed.
Despite the ordeal the former Nationals leader said he would continue to drink kava when visiting the Pacific, “but if I’m up north, I’ll be just taking a sip as Penny (Wong) sensibly did”.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Just perhaps don’t try to do it as well as the Romans do is the lesson I think I’ll take away from this,” he said.