So much baggage just may not fly

TONY Abbott is carrying to the coming poll more weight than the allocated baggage allowance, as the electorate tunes in to his rollicking back story.

For some, the alternative prime minister's history is so well-known that last night's Four Corners profile was a slow re-run: from student warrior to trainee priest, from defender of the monarch's realm to moral crusader.

Many have set minds and hearts when it comes to the love-or-loathe-him Opposition Leader. Still, with perhaps 20 per cent of voters open to persuasion and brand education, the putative candidate is putting himself out there for show. The challenge for Abbott is to ditch, if he is able, some of the hand luggage and polish up for parade those parts of him that he can't or won't change.

Malcolm Turnbull told the program that his party would have "a more conservative, more right-wing" position on issues with Abbott at the helm. Fist-pumping, foot-stomping Tories can breathe easily, now the former Liberal leader has cleared the air on climate change: Tony chose politics, Malcolm was for policy.

One-time boss and Liberal leader John Hewson lauded Abbott's retail political skills, cunning and "constant colour and movement".

Perhaps the heaviest shifting for Abbott centres around his poor image on women's issues. While his camp thinks it's outdated and unfair, the man has a back catalogue of king hits and bad memories that won't easily be forgotten.

And even in a mostly Christian country, "God-bothering" can be a turn-off. But Abbott is now more equivocal and less likely to get suckered on hypotheticals by reporters.

Or put too much detail on his loose-fit policy framework.

Abbott refused to commit to reducing homelessness by 50 per cent by 2020 as Turnbull had done in a bipartisan mood, an echo of the utter social realism and pragmatism of his political guide and guru John Howard, who has also returned to the spotlight in recent days.

And the "authentic's" vision for Australia? Not surprisingly, it was small "a" Abbott. All we saw was Diet Tony: "An Australia which is richer, which is better respected, and which is more cohesive," he said.

"Rather than have some vision of mine that I want to impose on the public, I would like to see everyone's vision more achievable. It's a series of individual and community visions that I would like to see realised rather than simply impose my own grand schemes on other people."

Do no harm to your electoral chances was the prevailing mood in his Four Corners interrogation. Go-hard-or-go-home Tony had retired to the study with his focus group results.