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The Forum > Article Comments > Lessons for history from an Australian prime minister > Comments

Lessons for history from an Australian prime minister : Comments

By Peter Bowden, published 14/9/2015

This is a speculative essay. It asks why, in a modern democracy, Australia should elect a Prime Minister who is widely and internationally criticised as overly militaristic and not that caring of the welfare of its people.

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Dear Shadow Minister,

You go right on singing from the same song book
old chap. The rest of Australia will simply get
on with the direction that we want to see
this country go in and with a government that
gives us stability. A government we can trust.
You can try to detract from the fact that not
only Australian voters, but the scale of the
backbench's dissatisfaction with Mr Abbott's
leadership within his own party was substantial.
Mr Abbott - was a failure as Prime Minister.
He simply turned out to be a deeply flawed
political leader.

As for Tony Windsor? I have family living in his
electorate and what you're claiming is as always,
simply not true.
Posted by Foxy, Saturday, 19 September 2015 7:04:40 AM
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Waffle on, SM....no matter how you spin it, Abbott was a dismal failure in almost every aspect.

(I note Mr Loyalty decided in the dying hours of his tenure to throw Hockey under a bus in an attempt to lure Morrison to campaign for him)

Foxy,

Here's a blunt and comprehensive.summation of the draw out debacle that was the Abbott govt:

http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2015/09/19/kicking-the-abbott/14425848002386

"It is no exaggeration to say Tony Abbott is the worst prime minister Australia has had. To the extent that his brief and destructive leadership of the country is remembered, it will not be remembered well.

Abbott is a prime minister without a legacy. In attempting to defend one this week, he came up with not much: some jobs, a few trade agreements, an infrastructure project, a border protection regime founded on human rights abuses, a royal commission so compromised by bias its own commissioner had to consider removing himself.

Abbott governed for the past and the few conservatives desperate to continue living there. He governed against science and in contempt of the environment. He governed in opposition to social equality, in terror of reform. His was a government of fear and avoidance, a rolling sideshow anxiously avoiding the fact it had nothing to add and no idea what to do."

"Abbott spent his time in opposition degrading the office of the prime minister. His was a campaign of debasement: a coarsening of debate, a running down of the respect once stored in the institution. Those who say he was a fine opposition leader do so in error. There is no victory in destroying what you set out to win.

On prevailing at the 2013 election, he placed on his head a small and tinny crown. He did nothing to repair it in the years that have passed since. Indeed, he added only to its dents and tarnish."

Read on...
Posted by Poirot, Saturday, 19 September 2015 1:38:27 PM
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Dear Poirot,

Thanks for that.

I am looking forward to the future for a change now
under the New Prime Minister.

It certainly has to be better than what we've had to put up
with in the past couple of years.
Posted by Foxy, Saturday, 19 September 2015 3:43:48 PM
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Poirot,

I see that you too are now quoting these one dimensional blogs written "badly" by unemployable recent graduates. The "Saturday paper" has essentially one news "reporter" who picks a subject at random on which he knows zip and regurgitates the same political drivel.

If Abbott was bad, KRudd and Juliar were far worse, and each after a fantastic start stuffed up so badly that they had to be removed. Getting the lowest poll result in Labor history is the only real achievement of the weasel Gillard.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Sunday, 20 September 2015 5:32:09 PM
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"I see that you too are now quoting these one dimensional blogs written "badly" by unemployable recent graduates. The "Saturday paper" has essentially one news "reporter" who picks a subject at random on which he knows zip and regurgitates the same political drivel."

Oh, well done, SM...you're so lightweight these days.

Would you like something from the Daily Telecrap instead?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/tony-abbott-goes-topless-at-wild-farewell-party-after-being-ousted-by-new-pm-malcolm-turnbull/story-fni0cx12-1227535045623

I think that's now paywalled (although you probably have a subscription) But just in case you don't - here's the class of your hero Tony Abbott and his office colleagues.

"A TOPLESS Tony Abbott celebrated his freedom on the night of the leadership coup by dancing with his shirt off at a wild party in the Prime Minister’s suite.

Party goers have confirmed that the former Prime Minister partied on until the small hours of Tuesday morning and was still firing off text messages at 4:30am"

"The wild party in the Prime Minister’s suite included a marble coffee table getting smashed and staffers souveniring shards of marble for the history books."

Mr Abbott had declined to hold a press conference on the night he was rolled by Malcolm Turnbull, instead heading straight to the bar with his loyal staffers."

Oh and...

"Several senior Liberal MPs also claimed a minister The Sunday Telegraph has chosen not to name had “spewed” in the ministerial wing."

Turnbull has just turned everything inside out in a reshuffle - Joe Hockey is leaving politics, hopefully followed by Tony.

What a bloody wreck was the Abbott administration - and we note that you reckon it was just the ant's pants.

Lol!
Posted by Poirot, Sunday, 20 September 2015 5:48:13 PM
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Here's something from a recognized journalist, not the pinheads you quote:

Tony Abbott was clearly the best of the past four prime ministers — eclipsing Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Rudd redux — yet he, too, was cut down by his own party. Abbott was, to some extent, the master of his own demise, but his failure to reach two years in the role raises questions about a rapidly mutating political culture. A politician who constantly proved his critics wrong, he probably would have done so again at next year’s election, which helps explain the vitriol directed at him. Strangely enough, Abbott was the victim of his successes as well as his failings. And, in a final perversion, his greatest beneficiary is Malcolm Turnbull.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Sunday, 20 September 2015 5:57:59 PM
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