Energy policy and immigration are what really matter: Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott will continue to “harp on” about energy, migration because they, rather than tax, are policies that “really matter.”

Tony Abbott doesn’t believe there are votes in company tax cuts. Picture: AAP.

Tony Abbott says he will continue to “harp on” about energy policy and migration because they are the policies that “really matter.”

“You can be very confident that I will be there as long as I humanly can, to talk about what I think really matters to people, and that is getting power prices down, it’s trying to get the downward pressure off wages, the upward pressure off housing prices, trying to unclog our streets so that we can get around our cities and towns,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.

“This is what people want, and this is the sort of thing that a good government would be striving to deliver for people.

“The point I made back in 2009, when we had a very serious problem in opposition, was I don’t want to change the leader, I want to change the policy, because if you change the leader without changing the policy, you just jump out of the frying pan into the fire.”

Mr Abbott said net migration had never been higher, arguing the two main drivers were businesses and universities bringing in labour and students.

“Businesses want to bring in labour because they want to keep their labour costs down, and universities want to bring in students because it boosts their revenue,” he said.

“Neither of these categories, which are driving net overseas migration, are directly controlled by government, and this is a problem. We need to get the government, the Australian government, back in control, not just of illegal migration, which we’ve stopped thank God, but of legal migration, because legal migration is now increasingly out of the control of the government.

“We’ve got to draw the right lessons from Saturday, and the right lessons are: do things that are consistent with our values, which the people want, give our people something to fight for, give the electorate something to hope in. That’s the job of politicians.

“Give our people something to fight for, give the electorate something to hope in. You do that and you’ll do well.”

‘No votes in company taxes’

Tony Abbott says there are “no votes in company tax cuts”, as senior cabinet ministers privately warn Malcolm Turnbull that the government must resolve the issue or face a wipe-out at the next election.

Pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister to drop or modify plans to extend the corporate tax cut — from 30 per cent to 25 per cent — to businesses with annual turnover greater than $50 million, after the government failed to win any seats in Saturday’s by-elections.

However, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann remained steadfast this morning, saying the government remained “absolutely committed” to company tax cuts and would proceed with plans to put them to the Senate when parliament resumes in a fortnight.

Mr Abbott said that while he accepted the economic case for company tax cuts, voters wanted a direct boost to their incomes.

“I certainly accept the economic case for company tax cuts, but there are no votes in company tax cuts, because what the public want is money in their pocket directly, not indirectly,” the former prime minister told 2GB.

“I absolutely accept that there’s a strong economic case for tax cuts, but what we want if they’re worth doing, there’s no point saying let’s have tax cuts in six years’ time.

“If tax cuts are worth doing, they’re worth doing now, and so I understand why there is this unhappiness, but again, the point I make is political commentary is cheap.

“What we need is the sorts of things that will make life better for ordinary people and that’s why I’ve been harping on for months now about getting power prices down by scrapping the renewable subsidies, by getting a coal-fired power station built.”

Mr Turnbull set himself up for leadership during the by-election campaign when he said: “A by-election is of course a test between the contending parties, between the contending candidates, and of course it’s a test between the leaders of the parties.”

Mr Abbott said leaders needed to learn not to set themselves up for failure.

“Don’t set tests for yourself that are going to be very hard to pass, and I guess 30 Newspolls was another one, but look, what I don’t want to do this morning is engage in political commentary, Mr Abbott said.

“What I want to focus on are the things that matter to voters, and voters want their power prices down, that’s why we should pull out of Paris, voters want their lifestyle to be getting better, that’s why we need to scale back immigration, to ease congestion, to take the downward pressure off wages and the upward pressure off housing prices.

“Voters want to be able to send their kids to low fee schools if possible. These are the sorts of issues that need to be addressed.”

Mr Abbott said the LNP’s primary vote of 29 per cent in Longman — down from 45 per cent when he swept to power in 2013 — was disappointing.

“We got 45 per cent in 2013, we got 39 per cent in 2016 even though we lost the seat, and we’re down to 29 per cent,” he said.

“Now I don’t think you can blame the candidate, I think Trevor Ruthenberg is a good bloke, he worked hard. Ditto (Braddon candidate) Brett Whitely, a good bloke, worked hard in Braddon.

“I think that (Mayo candidate) Georgina Downer is an outstanding political talent, and I hope some day she goes into the parliament.

“When the voters send you a message you’ve got to listen, but again, listening doesn’t involve playing politics.”