‘I would have died happy’: Booted Abbott reflects on coup

TONY Abbott has given a strange insight into his attitude on the day he was dumped, and opened up about Peta Credlin.

FORMER prime minister Tony Abbott reckons he and his government did OK.

He’s told Fairfax newspapers he would have died happy had he been accidentally killed on the day he was dumped as prime minister.

“If I’d been knocked over by a bus on the morning of the coup, I would have gone to the Pearly Gates and given an upbeat assessment,” he said.

Mr Abbott said he didn’t believe his government could have done much more or much better.

Achievements included stopping the boats, finalising free trade agreements and the unions royal commission.

The pair have been described today as political co-dependents. Photo by Gary Ramage

“I think it was a very successful government in spite of a feckless Senate, an irresponsible Labor Party, a poisonous media culture and well-organised white-anting,” he said.

Mr Abbott spoke up for his much maligned former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, who he described as a tough operator.

“She has opinions and she tells you, sometimes vigorously.

That’s what a PM’s chief of staff needs to do,” he said.

“It suited people who had a problem with me to say it was her — 99 per cent of it was distortion or fiction.”

Originally published as ‘I would have died happy’: Booted Abbott reflects on coup