Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin join forces for new Sky podcast

Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin will join forces in a new Sky venture, eight years after Credlin last served as the former PM’s chief of staff.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, with his former chief of staff Peta Credlin who are to be reunited as colleagues once more. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

It has been almost eight years since former prime minister Tony Abbott and his then chief of staff Peta Credlin last worked together in politics.

But clearly, old habits die hard. In the course of a rare joint interview, Credlin still repeatedly ­refers to the former PM as “the boss”.

Perhaps it’s because the ex-PM, who ran the country from 2013 to 2015, and his former top staffer are to be reunited as colleagues once more with a new fortnightly podcast that launches on Wednesday next week, eponymously titled Abbott and Credlin.

While Abbott has been a semi-regular guest on Credlin’s Sky News show in recent years, ­Abbott and Credlin will be the pair’s first regular gig together since they departed politics.

Why are they joining forces? Abbott tells The Australian that it is, in part, to help conservative politics in this country to “fight back”.

The former PM says the timing of the new Sky podcast is a ­direct riposte to what he sees as overblown claims of a long-term decline in right-wing politics in Australia, following the defeat of the federal Liberal government last May: “Plainly the demise of the Morrison government, and the inevitable cries that this marks the start of some sort of long-term crisis for Australian conservatism, is a good time to take stock and, I dare say, to fight back.”

Credlin takes a similar view: “What I got frustrated with post the Morrison era is all these people writing, ‘Oh, it’s the end of conservative politics, we’ve got to junk Menzies, we’ve got to move to the so-called centre,’ and all that rubbish. They don’t know the political history. They don’t understand these aren’t new challenges for conservatism.”

Referring to Abbott once more as the boss, Credlin notes the podcast idea has been brewing for some time, until the former PM ­finally put his foot down.

Abbott has been a semi-regular guest on Credlin’s Sky News show in recent years. Picture: Sky News

“Because the boss is busy, and I’ve got a show to do and columns to write, we’ve talked about it to the point that he’s said: ‘Put up or shut up, Peta. If we want to do it, let’s do it.’”

To coincide with the podcast, Abbott will also appear on Credlin’s Sky show on the day a new episode is released every fortnight.

But will there be any dissent aired between the high-profile pair on major issues? Philosophically, Credlin suspects, they will generally be on the same page, but she leaves open the possibility for nuanced divergence.

Addressing Abbott directly, Credlin tells him: “You’re probably a bit more socially conservative. I think some of our social values would be simpatico, but you’re a little more black and white than I am; I see a bit more grey in the social stuff. But certainly in the economic conservatism, and all the other tenets of conservative faith, we’re pretty much on the same page.”

For his part, the former PM says of Credlin: “When I was party leader, Peta would need to ­occasionally restrain some of my more robust instincts – more out of a sense of what was judicious rather than any disagreement.”

One subject the pair are likely to be in furious agreement on in the podcast series is the looming voice to parliament referendum.

“Anyone who’s been reading Peta’s columns and my own writing here would know we’re both very antagonistic to this voice,” Abbott says. “(It’s) not because we’re against recognition. We both support Constitutional recognition. But this isn’t recognition, it’s an activist power grab … that would entrench race in the Constitution. It would reinforce the separatism at the heart of Indigenous disadvantage and it would further gum up what is already a gummed up system of government. It’s wrong in principle, and it would be bad in practice.”

Credlin adds: “In part, I am persuaded by the argument that it won’t make things any better. But I’m more concerned about the fact that if you get the voice up, it doesn’t take responsibility for anything. Part of the malaise in Aboriginal affairs is that nobody actually takes responsibility for fixing anything … My issue with the voice is in practice. It’s all care and no responsibility. It’s just another echo chamber, rather than a practical, hands-on game-changer.”

One subject the pair are likely to be in furious agreement on in the podcast series is the looming voice to parliament referendum. Pictured is the former PM appearing before the working committee for the Voice to Parliament, at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Is their podcast a tacit acknowledgment that the federal Liberal Party, under Peter Dutton’s leadership, is not cutting through with voters?

Both emphatically dismiss that view, with Abbott saying: “Peter Dutton is the best thing that’s happened to the Liberal Party in years. He’s done a very good job.”

Credlin stresses the podcast will be a conversation: “It comes from the fact that, off and on the plane, or in the car, or in the office when he (Abbott) was leader, and then it’s continued since that time, we’d often have these conversations about the centre-right, and more broadly conservatism, and all the stuff the podcast will focus on. And we’d just say, we don’t think it’s reflected in what’s sometimes in the paper, or as part of the ­debate.”

And what of the prospect of more joint media ventures ­between the pair? Neither rules it out, with Credlin seeing the podcast as a “toe in the water”.

In the meantime, she says, this is “a chance to hear two practitioners, one now who is more of an international statesman, just talking about the challenges of the centre-right around the world”.