Abbott was staffer's IVF confidant
TONY Abbott's top adviser Peta Credlin has revealed Mr Abbott's private support during her fertility treatments.
TONY Abbott's top adviser Peta Credlin has revealed she challenged him on the issues of abortion, contraception and IVF before agreeing to be his chief of staff - and detailed Mr Abbott's private support during her fertility treatments.
Describing the day Labor frontbenchers including Wayne Swan sat through a "grubby" joke at a union dinner referencing innuendo about her relationship with Mr Abbott, Ms Credlin has told Marie Claire magazine it was tough turning up to work that day because she had just recovered from a fifth "failed" IVF cycle.
And in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Credlin revealed Mr Abbott offered to "run interference" for her as she went through IVF, storing her fertility drugs in his parliamentary fridge and clearing out his official bathroom for her use.
"He made it sound like it could work," Ms Credlin said.
"(Abbott's) just such an optimist. He'd say, 'It's OK. You're going to try again'. You can wallow in it. I never want to be one of these people whose whole life gets defined by whether I had kids," she told The Sunday Telegraph.
"You've also got to dust yourself off and keep going."
Ms Credlin says she told Abbott before working for him in 2010: "I will just never agree with you on abortion. I think you are opposed to it, desperately opposed to it and you would ban it if you could."
But Mr Abbott replied: "Well that's just bullshit. I believe it should be safe, legal and rare."
Ms Credlin said the Liberal leader told her he had a problem with the number of abortions in Australia but did not want to ban or restrict access.
Writing today in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Abbott says voters have been left with a "persistent myth" that he is anti-IVF or would restrict abortion as Prime Minister.
"As a former health minister, I had some inkling of what IVF involved but hadn't really grasped the multitude of appointments, tests and, above all, injections: big needles, small needles, this drug, that drug. Then there was the roller-coaster of raised and dashed hopes, month after month. No one is superwoman but Peta Credlin somehow managed this without taking a day off work and more-than-maintaining her decision-making, priority-juggling and tension-massaging role that's been a critical part of the Coalition's success," Mr Abbott writes.
"There are many types of bravery including the courage that's to be found very close to home. It's brave to persist with IVF. To do so while shouldering the burdens of a difficult job is extraordinary yet at any one time there are literally thousands of women in this position. They all des- erve our admiration and support."
Mr Abbott also reveals he opposed the Howard government's moves to restrict access to IVF as Health Minister in the lead-up to the 2005 budget.
"My attempt to excuse the then government's misguided intention, once it had been leaked, has given rise to a persistent myth: that I'm against IVF," Mr Abbott writes. "In fact, during my time as health minister, the number of women accessing IVF and Medicare support for IVF rapidly increased. I have never been opposed to IVF.
"How could any pro-family politician not want to encourage people to have children and to make it easier for them to do so?"
The Marie Claire interview is published on Wednesday.