Updated: Monday, Sept. 14, 2015 at 11 p.m. AEST: On Monday night, Malcolm Turnbull unseated Tony Abbott in an internal Liberal Party ballot to become Australia's 29th prime minister. 
 
 When current affairs demand it, the people of Australia can meme at the speed of sound. 
 
 Mere minutes after Liberal Party politician Malcolm Turnbull officially declared he would be challenging Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the leadership on Monday, #putyouronionsout out began trending on Twitter. 
 
 The hashtag is a nod to the prime minister's well-documented fondness for the vegetable, which he has been caught eating raw — twice. 
 
 It's also a preemptive, tongue-in-cheek eulogy for the end of Abbott's leadership. In late 2014, #putoutyourbats trended globally as part of a tribute to the late Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, where people laid cricket bats outside their front door. 
 
 The glorious meme was foreshadowed in August by Labor politician Tim Watts. 
 
 Turnbull, Morrison and Bishop all transparently auditioning in the spotlight this week #StandByTony #PutOutYourOnions — Tim Watts (@TimWattsMP) August 18, 2015 
 
 And apparently kicked off on Monday by Twitter user, John Kelly. 
 
 It was embraced by the people of Australia. 
 
 this VERY old rancid onion is a visual representation of how tony must be feeling rn #putoutyouronions #libspill pic.twitter.com/8EEAST2qMT — CHLOE SARGEANT (@chlosarge) September 14, 2015 
 
 Even Labor Senator Sam Dastyari joined in. 
 
 And it continued all afternoon. 
 
 The supermarket shelves will be bare at this rate. ||||| Australian Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison, second left, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, center, and former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, right, leave the chamber at Parliament House in Canberra,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Australian Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison, second left, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, center, and former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, right, leave the chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018, after a vote to refer former Dutton to the High Court to determine whether... (Associated Press) 
 
 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's beleaguered prime minister was resisting pressure to quit as opponents from within his party struggled on Thursday to show that he had lost the government's support. 
 
 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull demanded the names of lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Party who wanted him to go before he would allow them to choose a new prime minister at a meeting at Parliament House on Friday. The names would provide proof that a majority of his government had abandoned him. 
 
 Turnbull would then become the fourth prime minister to be dumped by his or her own party before serving a full three-year term in an extraordinary era of political instability that began in 2010. The trend is universally hated by Australians. 
 
 Turnbull's main rival in his government, former Cabinet minister Peter Dutton, has told the prime minister that a majority of Liberal Party lawmakers — at least 43 — don't support his leadership. But Dutton's supporters on Thursday could not find 43 lawmakers prepared to sign their names to a petition demanding a leadership ballot. 
 
 An explanation could be that some lawmakers fear they will be punished by voters if they put their names to dumping Turnbull. The ballot to choose a prime minister is secret, so lawmakers don't have to declare which candidate they voted for. Many later lie that they backed the winner. 
 
 Support for ousting Turnbull might also have waned because he warned on Thursday he would quit politics rather than ask his party again for its support in a ballot. His resignation from Parliament would force a by-election that could cost the government its single-seat majority. The resignation could also push his successor into immediately calling general elections. 
 
 Zed Seselja, a Dutton supporter who has resigned as a Turnbull government minister, estimated 40 had signed the petition by late Thursday. Turnbull should allow the meeting to proceed on Friday without the names of his opponents, Seselja said. 
 
 Turnbull insisted that the names of those who wanted him gone needed to be made public. 
 
 "These are momentous times and it's important that people are accountable for what they're doing," he told reporters. 
 
 Turnbull had defeated Dutton 48-35 in a surprise vote on Tuesday. Turnbull initiated the ballot in the hope of ending speculation that his government had lost faith in him in the face of poor opinion polling. Several ministers have since resigned and told him that most of the government wanted a new leader. 
 
 In addition to Dutton, media reports said other lawmakers were considering running for Turnbull's job, including Treasurer Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. 
 
 Opposition lawmakers reacted with outrage when the government shut down Parliament hours early so that Liberal Party lawmakers could focus on their leadership crisis. 
 
 Opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten told Parliament it was evidence that "Australia no longer has a functioning government." 
 
 "The Liberal Party, whatever it does today and tomorrow, is irreparably split," Shorten said. 
 
 His deputy, Tanya Plibersek, told Parliament that whoever emerged as prime minister should immediately call an election — an outcome that some analysts argue is probable. But with the next election due by May, the ruling coalition is far less prepared for an election now than center-left Labor is. The coalition has yet to select many candidates. 
 
 The opposition narrowly lost a vote in Parliament that would have sent Dutton to court to determine whether he is eligible to be prime minister. The vote to refer Dutton to the High Court was defeated 69-68 in the House of Representatives before it adjourned. 
 
 Dutton has released legal advice that his family's ownership of two child-care centers that received federal funding does not breach a constitutional ban on lawmakers having a pecuniary interest in an agreement with the public service. Some constitutional lawyers say there are areas of doubt. 
 
 Such a pending court case could scare lawmakers away from supporting Dutton in a leadership ballot. Government lawyers are investigating his case to see if there are issues for the High Court to determine. 
 
 Turnbull said he wanted the government's legal advice on Dutton's eligibility presented to Friday's meeting.
– This is no trick about keeping veggies fresher: Australians are putting their onions outside—and snapping photos of them—to pay tribute to their prime minister, who will soon be prime minister no longer. Tony Abbott, who ousted Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull in 2009, has now been ousted by Turnbull, who will become Australia's fourth prime minister in two years after a 54-44 party leadership vote, per the BBC. Turnbull had officially declared he would challenge Abbott for the leadership today, noting Abbott lacks "economic leadership" and would cause the coalition government to lose the next election since he's been falling behind in the polls. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who backed Turnbull's challenge, kept her role as party deputy by a 70-30 vote over Defense Minister Kevin Andrews. "The prime ministership of this country is not a prize or a plaything to be demanded," Abbott said before the vote, per the Telegraph. "It should be something which is earned by a vote of the Australian people." After news of the challenge broke, Australians began putting onions outside their doors in honor of Abbott, who is known to eat the veggies like apples, per Mashable. The hashtag #putyouronionsout began trending on Twitter, with some remarking that it meant Abbott’s downfall as leader. Last year, people shared photos of cricket bats outside their doors using #putoutyourbats to pay tribute to late Australian cricket player Phillip Hughes. To make matter worse for Abbott, a reporter notes he'll miss out on the $600,000 per year prime minister pension. A prime minister must be in power for two years to get it; Abbott managed one year, 361 days.