Abbott seen as wrecker, not Libs’ future

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a Liberal Party Democratic Reform event in Sydney. Picture: AAP

A US officer was quoted as saying he had to destroy a village during the Vietnam war to save it from the communist Vietcong. Whe­ther he said exactly that or not, or whether his remarks were tidied up by journalists, the expression is regularly parlayed to justify ­extreme actions.

It is that same argument Tony Abbott is using as he continues his mission to destroy Malcolm Turnbull, the leftie Prime Minister so openly despised by Abbott’s acolytes and by the man himself. ­Abbott is dressing it up as a noble enterprise, pretending he is really trying to save the Liberal Party, to shield its soul from the temptations of a drift away from conservative principles. He claims he is actually helping the government because this is the only way to ­ensure victory at the next election.

What sophistry. What utter nonsense the increasingly manic former PM is peddling to justify his revisions of history and his sowing of divisions which, if unchecked, will ensure the Coalition’s defeat.

Those who like him — and a few of them attended Michael Sukkar’s provocative town hall meeting on Monday night that helped kick the dramas into ­another day — genuinely believe that debating the party’s direction is healthy. If that was all that was happening, that would be fine. A backbencher striving for better policy outcomes is no bad thing. But those who defend the motives of this particular backbencher on those grounds are mugs or treating the rest of us like mugs.

A vocal few who remain in ­Abbott’s orbit are deluded into thinking a spell in opposition to cleanse the Liberal Party of the taint of Turnbull is a good thing. A desirable thing. So they cheer him on like giggly schoolgirls with their pompoms and tricky gymnastics, ignoring the fact that on any measure Turnbull has delivered more of the conservative agenda than Abbott was ever able to.

They know they are not helping the government. Wittingly or not, they are not helping Abbott ­either. He will never again lead the Liberal Party. He would be lucky to secure double digits in any vote.

His destructive and self-­destructive behaviour has esca­lated in a carefully orchestrated grid of appearances at think tanks or with young conservative MPs such as Sukkar, Angus Taylor and ­Andrew Hastie. Sukkar and Taylor, who are junior ministers, have angered their senior colleagues, including those who had urged their promotion. Questions were raised about their poor judgment at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting where their conduct was criticised. Christopher Pyne had already ­received his rebuke personally from the Prime Minister.

Sukkar hosted a function where Abbott bagged the budget that Sukkar, as Assistant Treasurer, had helped to formulate, and bagged the leadership that had promoted Sukkar to the frontbench. Way to go, Michael. Taylor, who co-convened a meeting at the weekend starring Abbott — where Turnbull’s video image was booed — to push for preselection plebiscites in NSW, had his own preselection saved by the direct intervention of Turnbull and NSW moderates. They have been left spluttering at Taylor’s campaign for greater democracy.

Abbott’s recipes for revival, as inconsistent and as far removed as they are from what he practised as PM, and his method of promoting them, are the stuff of fringe dwellers. It is no way forward for a mainstream political party seeking to govern Australia today or anybody who wants to lead one.

Most decent Liberals and Nationals, those who can think back beyond yesterday, know exactly what Abbott is doing. They do not thank him for it, nor do they see him as any kind of saviour, and if he stops long enough to listen to them rather than his deluded boosters he will see what lies ahead. He will ­become a pariah.

The Sky News-ReachTEL poll, which Abbott acolytes choose to ignore, said it all. A total of 73 per cent of Liberals prefer Turnbull as leader over Abbott. Abbott is strong among One Nation voters, where again, according to ReachTEL, 76 per cent of them would ­prefer him over Turnbull. One ­Nation votes could help retain a few ­regional seats, but in the suburbs of Brisbane, Melbourne, ­Sydney and elsewhere its policies would cost votes. That was ­obvious in the West and explains why in Queensland the LNP is treading carefully on the issue of preferences.

Even conservative Coalition MPs in Queensland have been taken aback by the level of anger from branch members and constituents who have contacted them to complain about Abbott’s destructive behaviour.

“My mob never liked Turnbull at all, but they have been turning against Abbott over the last few months and particularly in the past week or so,” one Queensland MP said. He claimed the disunity prompted by Abbott was leading to more resignations than any concerns about a drift leftward.

Pyne was too silly, too full of juice or too full of himself not to ­realise his remarks in the Cherry Bar would breathe life into Abbott’s seek-and-destroy missions and undermine the man Pyne had said — to no one’s surprise — he had voted for in every ballot.

Some of the outrage over what Pyne said was confected. Most of it was real. One moderate, taken aback by the reaction, nonetheless acknowledged the damage inflicted on Pyne personally and on the government generally.

Pyne took too long to apologise, then made light of his ­remarks again on the cringe-­making program he co-hosts with Labor frontbencher Richard Marles on Sky News on Friday lunchtime after he appears on Nine’s Today program that morning — a huge chunk of the day for a cabinet minister to spend appearing and preparing for television wasted if the messages transmitted do little or nothing to advance the government’s agenda.

Politicians who think they are in showbiz rather than the serious business of government reach a certain level, then go no further, ­especially if their signature ­response is to trivialise serious ­issues. Humour and lighthearted banter have a place in political discourse. They can leaven tension, take the heat out of arguments or show a more human side. Or they can turn participants into jokes.

A reshuffle during the winter break is unlikely, unless a minister happens to fall off their perch. When it does come, Pyne will go no higher than he is now. There is zero chance that he will get Defence if Marise Payne vacates it.

Not that they needed it but Pyne gave Abbott an alibi for his actions and the media license to report them at length and increasingly hysterically when the government should have been savouring a few victories, particularly the passage of the education funding reforms.