Abbott's critics are the ones out of touch

OFTEN, the truly important things about people are rarely known. That is especially the case of those in the public eye. With daily dissections of public figures by apparently curious journalists, we imagine we surely have their measure. Usually we don't. But it takes an honest mind and a good heart to admit that.

I learned two things last week about two men I thought I knew well enough. One - a distinguished military man, only recently awarded an Order of Australia, an alpha male, a sportsman, a former journalist, an accomplished writer, a once brute political operative for both sides, a deep thinker with a cheeky wit - is now a woman. Malcolm McGregor is now Cate McGregor.

McGregor is also the author of a magnificent new book An Indian Summer of Cricket. Whereas Malcolm wrote the book, Cate attended the book's launch. As McGregor writes towards the end, "By the time this book is launched I expect to be living permanently as a woman".

McGregor's crisis about gender is covered in a few short pages at the end of her book. Like viewers left bewildered by a simple catch dropped at mid wicket, those who know McGregor are left shaking their heads. How did they miss the disturbing psychological dramas tormenting McGregor for many years? More than once during this clever and beguiling book, McGregor helps us out by invoking Jung's claim that what was true in the morning becomes a lie in life's afternoon. A few days ago, McGregor told me over the phone she is now able to say: "this is my authentic life".

The other man I learned something important about is Tony Abbott. The Opposition Leader has known McGregor as Malcolm for more than 30 years. Both deeply inquisitive about people and ideas, Abbott and McGregor have shared many raucous conversations over a curry in Canberra.

How did Abbott respond when Malcolm became Cate? With compassion and humility about human frailty. With gentle humour and stalwart friendship, too. Catholic teachings against transgender had no bearing on Abbott's concern and support for McGregor. The Opposition Leader segued seamlessly from offering up his usual vigorous handshake to a mate to greeting his old friend with a hug and a peck on the cheek.

It is a far cry indeed from the cruel cartoon-like depictions of Abbott by his political opponents for "his misogyny", his "macho image", for being "a relic of another time", "a man's man", "seriously dangerous" with a "narrow worldview", a "zealot and an "ideologue", who will "lead the country back to the dark ages".

From the Gillard government girls to angry feminists such as Susan Mitchell (who didn't bother to interview Abbott for her book about him because "that wasn't the sort of book I wanted to write"), the accusations levelled at Abbott have been vicious and untrue. If a zealot is one who deliberately redoubles their efforts when the evidence suggests they are wrong, then Abbott's critics are the zealots. Likewise, if an ideologue is someone concerned more about ideas than human beings, they are also the ideologues. Those interested to learn more about Abbott will realise that rather than talking about the "real Tony", his authenticity comes from doing. And mostly the doing is kept away from the spin-doctors and the cameras. Whether he is spending his spare time with volunteer bush-fighters or running, swimming and cycling for charities such as the Manly Women's Shelter or the McGrath Foundation which raises money for breast cancer nurses, Abbott doesn't need to attach an adjective to his name to prove he is for real.

Late last year amid the cut and thrust of politics, when he was being wrongly assailed for misogyny, the alternative prime minister took time to pen a tribute in The Spectator to his friend's book and to his friend. There was no fanfare, no strategic overtures to favoured journalists to report Abbott's heartfelt review. Just a low-key and touching review headed "Tradition meets change". Of a book that elegantly explores the military exploits of Ulysses S Grant, the brilliance of Rahul Dravid, includes pen portraits of Kim Beazley and Roger Bannister (among others) and describes McGregor's love of and frustration with the great game of cricket, Abbott wrote: "It's hardly standard fare in a cricket book but this, after all, is a meditation prompted by cricket from one of the most perceptive political analysts I have ever met." Of his friend, Abbott drew upon Field Marshall Slim who remarked that moral courage is a higher and rarer virtue than physical bravery. Of Army chief General David Morrison's decision to launch McGregor's book, Abbott said it was a fitting salute to courage "how's that for an institution that is so often supposed to be out of touch"?

The same could be said of Abbott. Writing about Abbott's review on The Hoopla website, Gabrielle Chan challenged us to "get a glimpse of a more complex man". Yet the man demeaned by critics in the most insultingly fraudulent manner rarely gets a fair run in the media. Abbott's review was published in November last year. McGregor, well known in Canberra media circles, particularly among press gallery journalists, was interviewed on ABC radio and television. Yet the curiosity of our intrepid ABC journalists did not extend beyond the author's change of sexual identity. Journalists normally so keen to marry the political with the personal did not mention that the nation's alternative prime minister had published a compassionate and caring tribute to a friend in need. The review is on the website of publisher Barrallier Books. Alternatively, a quick Google search of McGregor brings Abbott's review to the screen. While Jim Maxwell, ABC's doyen of cricketing commentary, noted Abbott's gracious review, other members of the taxpayer-funded fourth estate seemed to fear that peeling back the truth of Tony Abbott might clash with their own political causes. And, needless to say, the rest of the press gallery was rather busy echoing the Gillard government's misogyny line.

Should we be surprised by any of this? Not really. Labor will continue the character assassination of Abbott. Other critics and intellectually lazy members of the media will toe the same line. But neither should we be surprised by Abbott's quiet act of loyalty and compassion. Abbott's character is plain to see if, that is, one is open to learning more about him.