Last stand of a conservative warrior, Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott was a conservative warrior, defiant to the end.

Tony Abbott at his Sydney home yesterday morning after the election defeat of the night before. Picture: Jeremy Piper.

Tony Abbott was a conservative warrior, defiant to the end.

“I always knew it was going to be tough here in Warringah — and I can’t say that it doesn’t hurt to lose,” he said during his concession speech. “But I decided back then, in October of last year, that if I had to lose, so be it. I’d rather be a loser than a quitter.”

And so it was. Abbott bowed out of politics on Saturday night by losing the once-safe seat he had held for 25 years, including two as Liberal prime minister.

Although he will be listed in the history books as Australia’s 28th prime minister, he is likely to be remembered in the nation’s political life more for contributions outside his two years in that high office.

Even critics admire the tenacity and discipline he brought to the job as opposition leader from 2009 to 2013: he stood firm during three turbulent years of minority Labor rule after leading the Coalition remarkably close to winning the 2010 election.

In earlier years, Abbott was a solid cabinet minister under John Howard in the health and employment portfolios. Howard also hinted in his 2010 autobiography that Abbott ­opposed the most draconian ­aspects of his government’s ill-fated Work Choices, saying ­Abbott was “never a zealot” about industrial relations.

But Abbott will be associated most with the conservative values to which he has stayed true. Courageous in an era of political correctness, and much to the irritation of his enemies on the Left, Abbott has remained a monarchist, expressed his scepticism about climate change and stuck to his strong beliefs that marriage should be a union between a man and a woman, although he accepts the law of the land on the matter.

The most lasting memory of Abbott’s last decade in parliament will no doubt be his epic tussles with Malcolm Turnbull. The pair knew each other from University of Sydney days and sparred during the 1999 republic referendum. They served together in the Howard cabinet. After toying with a run for the leadership after the Howard government’s loss in 2007, ­Abbott used his opposition to Turnbull’s support for the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme in 2009 to successfully challenge Turnbull and take over as opposition leader.

Two years into his prime ministership in 2015, Abbott was in turn toppled by Turnbull. Despite promising “no sniping”, he remained a critic and was part of the revolt that led to Turnbull’s ­demise as prime minister.

Abbott’s prime ministership was brief. He acted swiftly to repeal the Gillard government’s carbon tax, stopped a flood of asylum boats by introducing Operation Sovereign Borders and initiated the union royal commission.

The slide for Abbott’s prime ministership began early, with the badly received 2014 federal budget. His decision to reintroduce knighthoods and the use of a “captain’s call” to give one to Prince Philip were widely criticised. When opinion polls continued to slide, Turnbull pounced in September 2015.

Besides an early career as a journalist with The Bulletin and The Australian, he spent three years in a seminary before realising the priesthood was not for him. With no fanfare, he has spent a week each year as a teacher in a remote Aboriginal community. Though loyal to Howard, he believed it was a mistake not to offer a national apology to the Stolen Generations. As health minister in cabinet, as Howard recalls, Abbott was always arguing for more Medicare funding.