Abbott’s last plea: Don’t destroy the party I love

FROM the loneliness of political exile, Tony Abbott is urging conservative members of the Liberal Party not to walk away from the party he led into government two years ago

Aware of the tsunami of anger created by his ousting among party stalwarts, the former prime minister is telling friends that the Liberal Party will always be a better organisation with good people working within it than against it from the outside. When pressed, he refers to the precedent of Jack Kane, one of the founders of the breakaway anti-Communist DLP in the mid-50s, who, according to Abbott, towards the end of his life regretted not remaining within the ALP and fighting the traitorous Communist trade unionists as a Labor insider. “Those who did leave the ALP certainly strengthened the Liberal culture but to be honest, it would be a tremendous loss to our country and our party if those who are now so upset with the Liberals left,” he has told his supporters. “They must swallow their hurt and stay in the party, they must redouble their efforts to ensure we have good policy, a good party and a great country.” Though much of the party and media criticism of his prime ministership has been focused on the role of his chief-of-staff Peta Credlin, Abbott has steadfastly defended her in private conversations this week insisting that she has been “cruelly wronged”. “The attacks are true examples of misogyny,” he has said. “If a bloke had acted as she did in that role, they would be viewed as being tough. “She did not brief against Arthur Sinodinos,” he has stated categorically, with the clear implication that he believes his deputy Julie Bishop was the only other person aware of any discussions about the advisability of the NSW senator retaining his position when he was called before ICAC. Referring to politics as a “game of snakes and ladders”, he has assured those in his inner circle that he “is not bitter or upset, just disappointed and a little hurt’’. He has accurately, if ruefully, admitted that Treasurer Joe Hockey “could have been better” and that he could also have been a better prime minister. Of his former Cabinet colleagues, he singles out Environment Minister Greg Hunt for the most praise, saying that while Hunt is not his “ideological soulmate’’, he has been “an absolute strength” in the government and an excellent minister. Those who are recorded firmly on the other side of his ledger are George Brandis, Christopher Pyne, Scott Morrison and Bishop. It is noteworthy that it took Malcolm Turnbull and his accomplice Julie Bishop two years to achieve what Labor could not do — remove Tony Abbott from the prime ministership in his first term — but the new prime minister has not only not proposed a single major policy change so far, he has given the Nationals a far greater remit than they enjoyed under Abbott. Whether this is an accurate reflection of Abbott’s strength as a negotiator or Turnbull’s willingness to pay any price to lock the Nationals in behind his leadership of the Coalition, the Nationals have been the biggest winners. Turnbull has also disappointed his greatest cross-party support base, the kumbaya crowd, with his pledge to keep both the current plan to hold a plebiscite on homosexual marriage after the next election and to take the agreed carbon reduction targets to the Paris conference later this year. Nor will they be impressed with yesterday’s leaked Cabinet document which showed that he was the Abbott’s government’s worst-performing minister when it came to appointing women to board positions with just one appointee out of 16 made by his office since coming to office. The challenge now is for Turnbull to match the Abbott government’s achievements, an impossible task. Not only was he the most formidable Opposition leader, the record shows that he achieved more for the nation in his short time as prime minister than most manage in a full term or longer. Abbott’s record runs to more than seven pages and 70 major feats ranging from the delivery of the free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and China, the stopping of deaths at sea and ending the illegal boat arrivals, increasing female workforce participation to the highest level in more than 30 years and the creation of more than 335,000 new jobs, through to the introduction of a cheaper more efficient carbon reduction strategy. That he managed so much in the face of an obdurate Labor Party, a feral Senate crossbench, a relentless and mendacious media campaign run by Fairfax and the ABC, and a ruthless and well-organised Fifth Column within his own party, speaks volumes for both his courage and the strength of his convictions. It also strengthens the need for Turnbull to reach out to the successful leader he vanquished and reassure those who felt Abbott best represented them that his new Cabinet will reinforce and not undermine demonstrably effective policy.