Tony Abbott’s convictions are ever changing

Tony Abbott used climate change as an issue to bring down both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

It can be hard to keep up with the ever changing strongly held convictions of Tony Abbott. The self-confessed weathervane when it comes to climate change has returned to his old view that scientific consensus on the issue is absolute crap.

Actually, he’s gone a little further in his latest speech, arguing that there are in fact good consequences attached to the warming of the planet, if that’s indeed what’s happening.

When I first started here at The Australian I remember Abbott’s opinion article telling colleagues to back then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull in on his support for Kevin Rudd’s Emissions Trading Scheme. However when Abbott picked up on backbench discontent with Turnbull’s climate change policies, he switched his stance and used the issue to wrestle the leadership off Turnbull.

Abbott thereafter successfully used it to bring down both Rudd and Julia Gillard. It was a brilliantly deployed political weapon.

But climate change isn’t the only strongly held conviction Abbott inconsistently takes a stand on. Believe it or not Safe Schools was launched on his watch as PM, and certainly not abolished during those two years. But now it’s the sum of all evil apparently — a stick with which he can attack the marriage equality YES campaign.

Not proceeding with changes to Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act when PM followed a pledge to make changes when Abbott was Opposition Leader. From memory he’s back to wanting to make changes (I’m not sure, it’s hard to keep up).

As a minister Abbott was anti Federalism and wrote on the subject (including wanting to centralise health policy in Canberra), before declaring federal Labor’s poor governance from 2007-2013 shifted his thinking to being pro-Federalism. Not that I can recall any such policy scripts during his time as PM. Now he’s talking about the Commonwealth using its defence powers to override the state’s on gas policy.

As PM Abbott locked in the current renewable energy target, now he wants it scrapped. As industrial relations minister he argued for many of the elements which eventually went into the Work Choices legislation, only to argue against Work Choices in Cabinet when John Howard gained control of the senate after the 2004 election.

Rather than find an ideological backbone on IR he did stick to that position in opposition and government. Work Choices was “dead, buried and cremated”.

Abbott opposed a plebiscite on the republic back in the day, preferring to go straight to a constitutional referendum. He then argued for a plebiscite on same sex marriage in the party room but doesn’t like the way it’s now being conducted.

The former PM said the last parliament was the last time Liberals would be bound to a party vote against SSM, but now says crossing the floor on that issue would be a sin because politicians shouldn’t break their promises to voters. Do I even need to quote that infamous SBS interview on what became broken promises Abbott reeled off the night before the 2013 election?

Conviction politicking, I guess it isn’t always a consistent mantra. John Maynard Keynes is purported to have said when the facts change he changes his mind. Abbott doesn’t need the facts to change for his convictions to do a complete 180 degree turn.

Genuine question: can anyone think of a strongly held conviction our former PM has had which he hasn’t changed his mind about? I can: no quotas for women (but he supports a quota in the Coalition agreement for the number of Nationals in cabinet). More consistency.

But according to conservatives it’s Malcolm Turnbull who doesn’t stand for anything.

Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics at the University of Western Australia and a presenter on Sky News.