Queen’s birthday honours: top honour for Abbott, but he’s no Sir Tony

Tony Abbott believed that one of his most contentious decisions as PM — restoring knighthoods — was the ‘right thing’ to do.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott in his NSW Rural Fire Service uniform on Sunday. Picture: Jane Dempster

Tony Abbott believed that one of his most contentious decisions as prime minister — restoring knighthoods in Australia — was the “right thing” to do. But he harbours no resentment that they were subsequently abandoned by his successors.

And he roared with laughter at the suggestion that he would ever have received one if they had ­remained on offer.

“I doubt it very much because there were only two a year, and in any one year I reckon there would have been far more deserving candidates,” he said.

Speaking on the day he was named a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, Mr Abbott said he was “thrilled” and regarded receiving the nation’s highest civilian honour currently awarded as one for “the whole team” he once led.

The monarchist who famously led the successful referendum campaign against Australia becoming a republic in 1999 — his first public dust-up with Malcolm Turnbull before both entered politics — said the AC was typically awarded to all former prime ministers.

Mr Abbott reiterated it had been his unilateral right as prime minister to restore knighthoods with “an order in council”. As was his later awarding of a knighthood to Prince Philip in the January 2015 Australia Day honours list, a move that led to questions about his judgment, fuelled rumblings about poor cabinet consultation and played a part in him losing the leadership to Mr Turnbull eight months later.

Mr Abbott was philosophical about Mr Turnbull ditching knighthoods and Scott Morrison not bringing them back. “That’s the prerogative of the prime minister of the day, and that’s not me,” he said.

Accepting his AC, which recognises his significant contributions to trade, border control and the indigenous community, Mr Abbott said he looked back at his team’s highlights: “They were to stop the boats, repeal the carbon tax and mining tax, kick off the biggest infrastructure program in Australia’s history, get the big three free-trade deals going, and begin the process of budget repair — sadly interrupted by the current corona crisis, and needing ­urgently to be resumed at some point in the near future.” Out of politics after losing his seat at last year’s election, Mr Abbott, 62, says his life is “a lot quieter”, although it still seems full and varied with ­positions on the boards of the Australian War Memorial and the Ramsey Centre for Western Civilisation.

He is also patron of several ­organisations and remains involved as a volunteer with the ­Davidson Rural Fire Service and other community groups in his former Warringah electorate in Sydney’s north.

There is the sense Mr Abbott misses his old world, admitting he feels no relief at his very different way of life.

“It’s a bit like somebody who played rugby for Australia and is now watching from the grandstands. There are times when you feel you’d like to get the boots, put the boots on, and get back onto the field,” he said.

“But you realise that you’re in the hands of the selectors, the ­selectors made their choice.

“Once the selectors have put you in the grandstand, they almost never change their mind.”

One thing Mr Abbott insists he will not do is snipe.

He may write more on issues over time but will not release a tell-all memoir like Mr Turnbull’s or a book about his prime ministership.

“Memoirs tend to be self-serving, and I think I should leave the history of the Abbott government to the historians,” he said.

“From time to time I may well have something to say about what I think are the big issues, but the last thing I want to do is to provide a running commentary on the ­affairs of the day. I think that makes life even more complicated for your successors.”

Mr Abbott describes the Morrison-led team as “the best possible government”. Pressed further, he said everyone should be grateful in difficult times to the Morrison government for saving the nation from the health consequences of the pandemic.