A Boy Egged A Racist Politician After Christchurch. A Year On, Their Lives Have Completely Changed.

Anning lost his own Senate position after receiving only 6,614 votes at the election. He's failed to appear in court where he's facing bankruptcy proceedings. A former staff member, Leon Ashby, told BuzzFeed News that Anning is currently in the United States. Anning's personal Facebook profile lists his location as Venezuela - which, rather than his actual location, is likely a reference to the fact Venezuela has become an anti-socialist meme among right-wing politicians.

Anning didn't respond to emails or messages to his Facebook account.

His "Fraser Anning - Former Senator" Facebook page still regularly posts, but interactions on his posts have plummeted since his unsuccessful election tilt, and he's been losing followers since the middle of 2019.

Fears that Anning would somehow capitalise on the " publicity and sympathy the egging gave him " have turned out to be unfounded. His popularity - online and off - has waned.

His defining moment as a public figure is being egged by Connolly. More news articles about Anning include the word "egg" than not, and it's mentioned in three of every four articles about Anning published since mid-2019, according to media analytics company Muck Rack. The most popular web, Facebook and YouTube content about Anning are about the egging, according to content analysis tool BuzzSumo (no relation to BuzzFeed).

Connolly has no regrets over the egging itself: "One hundred percent I'd do it again. No-one ever stands up to these politicians. [The egging] made an impact, and not many people can say that."

He does regret, though, saying in a Snapchat video recorded after the event, "don't egg politicians, you get tackled by bogans, I learnt the hard way". Connolly said he didn't intend to be demeaning to bogans, which is Australian slang for "redneck".

Connolly never imagined the egging would go as wildly viral as it did. When he went to the hospital after the pile-on, a nurse came in and asked him what he was in for. "I pointed above her head. The video of the egging was playing on Channel 7 already," he said.

He struggled with the sudden, extreme fame at first. While most people were supportive - except for a death threat called into his school - he felt like he was trapped between the public persona of Egg Boy, and his own sense of self. Connolly also said he was uneasy about the focus being on him rather than the victims of the Christchurch shooting.

"I had everything a 17-year-old would want. Fame, Instagram followers, girls coming up to me and yet I had the biggest hole inside of me," he said.