Tony Abbott outlines what he would fix if he was PM again

Tony Abbott hasn’t ruled out a comeback as PM, identifying power prices and immigration levels as the first issues he’d tackle.

Tony Abbott with Alan Jones and Dr Kevin Donnelly at the book launch. Picture: John Feder.

Tony Abbott has not ruled out a comeback as prime minister, identifying power prices and reducing immigration levels as the first issues he would tackle.

Accepting his fate rested in the hands of his party room and Sydney electorate, Mr Abbott said he was “here to serve”, adding, “ whatever I can serve in depends upon others.”

The former Liberal prime minister was asked if he would run again by a staffer from the Kyle and Jackie O radio show towards the end of the launch of a new book, How political correctness is destroying Australia, by education commentator Kevin Donnelly.

Speaking in Sydney, Mr Abbott said he was in the hands of voters from his northside electorate Warringah, and then in the hands of his party.

He did not mention Malcolm Turnbull by name, or suggest he would seek to displace Mr Turnbull from office.

Asked to nominate one thing he would “fix” if prime minister again, Mr Abbott picked two.

“The first thing I would do is try to do some things that government can and must,” he said. “That’s take the pressure off the cost of living by doing something about power prices … the next thing you’d do is scale back the rate of immigration, because while we’ve got stagnant wages, soaring house prices and clogged infrastructure, why are we adding 250,000 people to our population every year? It’s just mad.

“Unfortunately if you touch on these things you are a climate change denier, and you are anti-immigrant, even racist. Well, wrong, wrong, wrong. This is the suffocating political correctness that has descended over so much of our political discourse.”

Radio broadcaster Alan Jones, who also spoke at the Sydney launch, said it was good Mr Abbott stayed in politics to prosecute ideas, and dismissed calls for him to bow out.