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The way back: 'moving forward' in a progressive direction

By John Tomlinson - posted Wednesday, 13 November 2013


Abbott was the most successful Leader of the Opposition in Australia's history. He had the capacity to cut through with a simple message. There wasn't a day went by when he was not at some factory or other driving home his inane self-serving carbon tax message. He was able to maintain discipline in the ranks of his parliamentary party. But being in government is a much more difficult a task than being Dr No.

On his front bench he has some very experienced and competent ministers like Ian Macfarlane. But Macfarlane is constantly undermined by hard-line anti-subsidy advocates with who sit on the front bench. There are several cabinet ministers who don't seem to understand how to avoid travel-rorting. Abbott has so far managed to navigate smoothly from being Leader of the Opposition to Prime Minister but he does have an inbuilt capacity to go off the rails.

His biggest danger in the foreseeable future is the hard men of the Liberal Party. Abbott knows this and has tried to control them by demanding that before Ministers consent to a media interview that the PM's staff must clear it.

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Whether he can keep the extreme industrial relation agenda of people like Senator Eric Abetz under wraps is an open question. Scott Morrison, who as Shadow spokesperson for denigrating asylum seekers flooded the airways with hourly interviews, now only appears from under his rock once a week and then with the intention of avoiding most of the questions asked of him. He'll get away with that ploy in the short term but eventually he'll have to tell the truth about what is happening on the high seas and in our offshore processing concentration camps.

The other thing that will eventually bring down some of the Cabinet highflyers is the difference between their statements on social and sexual matters and their actions. But who cares in the end? They'll shuffle off this parliamentary stage to "spend more time with their families" or because of "their ill health".

The overturning of Labor's plan to tax superannuation income in excess of $100,000 per annum and scrapping of Labor's $500 a year superannuation contribution to low income earners will ensure that there will never be a sizable contingent of Abbott's battlers.

The untested question which Australians will be interested to have answered is can Shorten and Plibersek lead a united Labor team into the fray and whether they can build a coalition based on trust and respect with the Greens. Labor and the Greens attempt to appeal to a similar electoral base and often their past coalitions have been riddled with distrust and hostility. If they are to defeat Abbott at the next general election they must act in unison or at least in a mutually supportive way.

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About the Author

Dr John Tomlison is a visiting scholar at QUT.

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