Tony Abbott rues ‘revolving door PM’ politics, defends own record in first post-spill interview

Tony Abbott, the former Australian Prime Minister, defended his government’s track record during his first ever interview since Mr Malcolm Turnbull toppled his administration. Abbott further discussed the struggle faced by governments in pushing difficult reforms under the “febrile” politics that manifest in party-room coups.

“How can governments make the decisions about difficult and necessary reforms if prime ministers are subject to the kind of death by opinion poll which we have seen in recent times,” he asked in an interview with the Weekend Australian.

Nothing changed

Abbott observed that barring his exit as PM, there has not been any marked change at the ground level for the government. “In a policy sense, there is very little departure,” he said.

“Border protection policy the same, national security policy the same, economic policy the same, even same-sex marriage policy the same, and climate change policy the same. In fact, the rhetoric is the same," Abbott noted.

The former PM claimed that his two years in power have given Turnbull and the new treasurer, Scott Morrison, “a very strong foundation” from which the Coalition could seek re-election. Abbott is hopeful that his successor could win the next election to avoid further instability.

Political future

Regarding his political future, Abbott said he will make a decision on his parliamentary future before Christmas.

"I think I'm far too young to retire. Obviously I still think I have quite a lot to contribute in public life,” the former PM said.

Expressing concern over the "revolving door" of the prime minister's office, Abbott said that, the commentariat now have the PM they wanted but the public lost the PM offocial they voted for, and this is the real issue for the country. Abbott also blamed the Senate, the opposition and a section of the media for his downfall.

“We had an obdurate Labor party, a feckless Senate and a very difficult media culture. I’m not complaining,” he said.

“This is the world in which we live. The 2014 budget was a very serious structural attempt to tackle our long-term spending problems,” Abbott added. He defended the cuts made in health and education in the Coalition’s deeply unpopular 2014 budget, which led to adverse opinion polls for the Coalition and culminated in his ouster.

“The fact is we did get $50bn worth of savings out of the budget over the forward estimates,” he said. Abbott added that his government could improve the fiscal position by about half a percentage point of GDP.

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