Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot has been knwon to be a bit odd and awkward at times, most recently shown this week with his cringeworthy St. Patrick’s Day message. And now Abbott's added to his catalogue of odd as he chomped down on a raw onion, skin and all, before a baffled crowd of farmers and journalists.

Abbot was on a tour of Charlton Farm Produce in a rural region of Tasmania, and while there, and in the full glare of the cameras, made the strange move of eating an onion, with skin and all, like it was an apple.

Somehow Abbott seems to hold his face together, and not allow even a flinch as he chomped down on the raw veg.

Farm owner David Addison, speaking to The Mercury, was a bit taken aback by the whole scene.

“I may have said ‘It’s a shame they weren’t peeled’ and he just started eating it,” he said.

“It was just spontaneous and there weren’t even any tears.”