I don’t expect extra pay for new indigenous role says Tony Abbott

Scott Morrison has defended his pick of Tony Abbott as special envoy on indigenous affairs.

Tony Abbott will become a special envoy on indigenous affairs. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has defended his pick of Tony Abbott as special envoy on indigenous affairs, declaring the former prime minister was “passionate” about improving the lives of Aboriginal Australians.

The Prime Minister batted off concerns from indigenous Labor senator Patrick Dodson, declaring Mr Abbott’s role would be focused on “getting indigenous young people into school”.

“What more important job could there be than that for those indigenous young people? I am sure there is not a person in the country that would not agree that doing something to ensure we keep and get indigenous young people into school, indigenous kids into school, is something we should all work on,” Mr Morrison said.

“I remember a number of visits I made with Tony to central Australia on indigenous issues many, many years ago when I was a shadow housing minister and we walked from town to town and we sat in the dust, there were no cameras around, we were just sitting in the town camps in Alice Springs.

“I know how passionate Tony Abbott is about changing generationally the life circumstances for indigenous Australians.”

Bill Shorten said Mr Abbott should call on the government to give more funding to remote housing.

“I think if he is going to be a fair dinkum envoy for indigenous Australia: go and convince Mr Morrison, who was the treasurer who wouldn’t properly fund remote housing,” the Opposition Leader said.

“I think Mr Morrison, Mr Abbott, if they want a reset on treating First Australians with some degree of decency, Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison need to reverse their cuts to remote housing.”

‘I don’t expect extra pay’

Tony Abbott says he does not expect to get any extra money for his role as special envoy on indigenous issues.

The former prime minister said he would focus on practical issues, such as schooling in indigenous communities, after confirming he accepted Scott Morrison’s job offer.

“I certainly don’t expect any extra pay for this, I am a member of parliament and members of parliament are pretty well paid as things stand,” Mr Abbott told 2GB radio.

“I really do want to focus on practical things, like school education, inevitably there will be a lot of talk about constitutional recognition, I really think that stuff to do with the constitution needs to stay with the PM because what I want to do is make a difference to people’s lives and a focus on school education is the best way for people to go.

“I have been to lots of remote schools over the years, we need to get attendance up, we need to get standards up and I think that would be a wonderful thing for me to focus on because you have got to have the passion, you have got to have the insight and you gave got to have the will to make it happen.”

Mr Abbott said being a former prime minister would bring “authority” to the task of improving the lives of Aboriginal Australians.

“I suppose the thing I would do is bring the authority of a former prime minister to the task,” he said.

“I think that if you’ve done the top job you can bring a lot of horsepower to any other job that you do and that’s why I think I can quite probably cut through in a way that maybe others wouldn’t be able to.”

Earlier, opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles said he shared the same concerns on Prime Minister’s pick for the advisory role as indigenous Labor senator Patrick Dodson, who labelled the move as “condescending” to the Aboriginal people.

The Daily Telegraph reported this morning that Mr Abbott had accepted the role and identified school attendance and academic performance as key areas for improvement in indigenous communities.

“This is a person who as prime minister cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of indigenous funding, who famously said that living in remote communities was a lifestyle choice, so I echo Senator Dodson’s concerns about Tony Abbott performing his role,” Mr Marles told Sky News.

He said the Prime Minister was using the appointment as an attempt to stop Mr Abbott from creating division within government ranks.

“This is a band-aid over what is a chasm that is going right through the middle of the Liberal Party at the moment, we all know what is going on here: this is an attempt to throw a bone to Tony Abbott and hopefully make him happy given the destruction that has been caused to the Liberal Party over the last 10 days,” Mr Marles said.

“And I think the idea that Tony Abbott is going to be satisfied with a title which doesn’t have a job behind it is laughable, this is a recipe for a frustrated ex-prime minister going forward, there is no doubt about that.

“The Liberal Party is really two parties right now, a very unhappy Coalition with each other, I don’t think this is going to do anything to change that reality and that is the point of giving Tony Abbott this title in Scott Morrison’s mind, I don’t reckon it is going to work.”

More than honorary

Mr Abbott told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday that he would ­seriously consider Mr Morrison’s offer as long as it was more than an honorary position.

“I have a fair dinkum job, to be the member for Warringah. I suspect I can manage other things, but let’s see what it involves,’’ he said.

Mr Morrison spoke to Mr ­Abbott after leaving him out of his new-look cabinet on Sunday.

“Tony and I are continuing to talk about the role he can play and, as a former prime minister, I want to use his experience,” Mr Morrison said on Monday. “I want to use his insights in an area I know he is deeply passionate about.”

Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Patrick Dodson slammed the job offer on Monday, saying it would be “condescending” to indigenous people if Mr Abbott took the role, particularly as he had not lent his support to an indigenous voice in parliament.