When Bob Hawke was asked what sort of Liberal leader Tony Abbott would make, he answered: "Temporary". This paper seems to support that view.

I am dreading having to listen to Tony Abbott's constant appeals "to the working family" which are based on no economic plan that I have heard about. It feels as though he simply grabs figures out of the air every time he speaks.

Conservatism in Australia is poorly understood and poorly represented by Tony Abbott's 'Battlelines'. The Liberal Party has always been a thinly disguised coalition of vested interests seeking to subvert the public interest - subsidised businesses, cocooned-professionals, agrarian socialists, and recipients of middle class welfare make up the heartland of the party. No surprise, then, that Tony Abbott opposes means-testing of welfare and supports even more corporate welfare.

A genuinely transformative conservatism would seek to strengthen society by making both state and markets serve social objectives. Markets should serve consumer interests and competition, not protect big business. State regulation should protect civil society and organic social relationships, not buttress service providers, lawyers and professionals. Conservatives should seek to build the capacity and assets of low-income people to participate in a genuine property-owning democracy, not dispense welfare and paternalism in glorious bi-partisanship with left-leaning bureaucrats.

Liberal and Labor share an ideology of managerialism, which is the dominant ideology of our time.

Conservatives should aim to subvert this managerial hegemony, empowering people to create, restore and strengthen civil society.

This is the real emerging battleline in 21st century politics.

Vern Hughes
Centre for Civil Society

Tony is not perfect and conservatives accept that, as do liberals of their choice of leader and current PM, surely?

If we wait for the perfect conservative leader (prince Charming syndrome) as some people encourage, then we might wait a long time.

Tony is better as a leader of conservatives than Malcolm was, and many Liberals believe Malcolm is confused about politics and may be in the wrong party.

The criticisms in the article are what you would expect from someone worried about what might happen should their preferred leader and system be thrown out. Tony certainly has you all worried, this is good for politics in Australia, perhaps now we'll get some actual questioning of government policy and behaviour.

Now that we have a conservative leader who is not a shadow of the PM, as were Malcolm and Brendan, who can clearly differentiate himself, we have an alternative when we throw the ALP out.

It doesn't matter what the conservative policies are, what matters is we have someone of substance standing by when we vote the ALP out, not the coalition in. Did the ALP have policies years ahead of the election, no of course not and they had 3 leaders in 2 years.

In the last federal election, the ALP were not voted in, the coalition were voted out, look at all the advertising, it was not on positive strengths of the ALP, but the negative aspects of the coalition. The ALP ran a negative campaign, and will do it again, it started 15 seconds after Tony became leader.

Women who read Battlelines will be left in no doubt that it is their patriotic duty to breed; and there is seemingly no recognition that women who do not have children can contribute to the nation in a publicly meaningful way.

It would have been strange to encourage men to breed, after all they do need a woman to carry the child.
Were single men told that they could contribute to nation if they didn't father children? Why would a single woman need to be told she could contribute in a publicly meaningful way. That would be patronizing!

There is no point in dissecting Tony Abbott or any other party-driven politician for the benefit, amusement or edification of the Australia people.

They are all the same; there for what they can get out of it, and to hell with the electorate they are supposed to be working for.

All we have is the 'choice' of one of two dictators. We need to start refusing to vote for any party hack intent on driving us further into totalitarianism

Perhaps the best thing about the Labor party is that they had no appreciable agenda much less a hidden one, outside of winding back Howard's rush of hubris.

Anybody want to take a bet against: that if Abbott's lot (the conservatives as opposed to the other 49% *l*iberals) get in that they'll do a Howard i.e. "everybody knows my stance on..."(religion) baby bonus up the wazoo, anti abortion, and Work Contracts by stealth? unwinding AGW advances to assist business.
More farmer/business welfare is a given and odds on.

great choice! do nothing govt or back to the future.

Terrific

Battlelines very credibly defends the need to respect the best values and institutions of our own culture, derived from Britain and added to by people from other cultures. I’ve travelled in 50 countries, and while no country is perfect, Australia is about as good as it gets.

Abbott rightly quotes Scruton that conservatives should oppose ‘this breast-beating, guilt-ridden desire to thrown away our inheritance’. To paraphrase Churchill, British-style democracy is the worst of all systems – except all the others. The Judeo-Christian ethic of standards of morality and civility in behaviour, respected in the past, produced a less violent, less nihilistic and happier society than we see now.

Where Abbott is socially conservative, he’s on sound ground.

I enjoyed most of his discussion of ‘What’s Right?’ But the book fails the test Abbott himself sets:
“ ‘we are always right and they are always wrong’ partisanship often does as little to cast light on issues as it does for the standing of politicians” (p x).

Abbott is an immensely tribal politician. His chapter ‘A Tale of Two Governments’ justifies the Howard government but spectacularly fails to give credit to Hawke-Keating for ending the longstanding tradition of strikes. He says (p 25) “the former [Howard] government was a victim of its own success … People with no memory of strikes weren’t scared of unions.” This is a blatantly dishonest representation of the achievements of Hawke-Keating through the Trilogy and the Accord. In the WA Iron Ore Industry, to take just one example, days lost through strikes plummeted from the mid-80s.

He quotes Bernard Wise (p58): ‘an action of the state .. ought not weaken the motives for morality’. What on earth did Work Choices do? Isaiah 10:1-2: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”

Abbott’s economic credentials are poor and rather callous. He should take seriously a point he quotes from the UK Centreright website: “private choices have public consequences” (p65).

Personally I think that Malcolm Turnbull
should start a new Party. Now that would
make for an interesting choice in
the next election.

You only have to look at Tony Abbott's
front bench to realize that it's time
to stop repeat offenders (Don't re-elect
them!). If ignorance is bliss - Tony
Abbott represents Paradise!

Sure you can trust the Liberal Party -
Just ask our Indigenous people!

Thanks Timothy for posting this article. Great summation of what Tony Abbott proposes to stand for; shall we say what Mr Abbott does not stand for.

Mr Abbott does not stand for the best interest of Australians. He does not have Australia's intrest in mind when complainig about Labors efforts to subvert and successfully guide Australia through the worst economic crisis sice the great depression. Mr Abbott does not stand for the working class and he certaininly does not stand for the best interest of women in society.

What Mr Abbott does stand for is alot of confussing, flippant ideas that will take Australia backwards; backwards with our economy, backwards with action on climate change, backwards to the cave man era in terms of womens rights ...

Gosh Xoile that's very close to a "Wayne Swan Rant"

Surely it would be an error for Mr. Abbott to start spruiking economic Policy , did KR do this at the last election , he didn't and of course we now know why .

The other aspect is Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott to be fair have not had enough time to flesh out a sensible relationship .

Foxy,
You should have added
- ask a woman who want to be in control of her life.
- ask a person who doesn't want their coastal property to swamped.
- ask a person who doesn't want to be bushfired out.
- ask the 49% of real liberals
- ask a mum who's looking for facilities for children. schools, kindergartens, child care facilities etc.
- ask a economist what's going to happen with the debt bubble
- ask those who are trying to find work
- ask those who want a real uni education ...not just the rich

While they're at it ask the labor the same questions. Let them *both* know they're wanting and are on notice.

Interesting to note that the English BBC4 are taking pot shots at Abbott's Liberals' AGW denialism.

ShazBaz001,
Pistols at dawn and hope neither misses sounds about right to me.
Then start again

This article has been written by a bloke who blindly believes in global warming, the economic stimulas hasn't merely delayed the economic implosion or increased both government debt and government employment and that Rudd can still portray himself as an economic conservative and god's gift to reasonable diplomacy.

And let's not mention the crisis in state health education and transport.

Oh and what about rising interest rates, rising cost of living and petrol prices and the continuing Japanese invasion of our whale sancturaries. Give me a return to the honesty of J. Howard economic conservatism anyday.

And look what the bastard did to the cost of my rum and cokes.

Tony Abbott has hit the nail on the head when he discusses making policy on climate change. I find it refreshing that someone understands my thoughts that we should have a strategy then work out the cost then figure out how to pay for it (indeed can we pay for it) the current government strategy is to have a tax on carbon and then at some time in the future we can use the money for something ? Much like the current road charging scheme ... which is to take as much money from road users as possible while drivers put up with our nightmare road conditions. Now if Tony Abbott comes up with a policy on roads he wins my vote.
Tom Gradwell