Trying in vain to reimagine Tony Abbott

Now that he is a winner, it seems that most commentators are rushing to unearth and acclaim the hidden depths of the 'enigmatic' Tony Abbott, who until now appeared to only have romped in the shallows of the collective imagination.

Australia now has a new Prime Minister, and we wait with some trepidation for his transformation into our new 'great leader'.A leader who in his own words will shed the skin of a junk yard dog and don the mantle of our PM. A new Tony will emerge with the hastily acquired gravitas of a great statesman.

To that end David Barnett in The Drum asks will Abbott the tiger in opposition be revealed as the leopard who cannot change its spots.

All of us must adapt and change and we do, albeit in increments so small that they are often barely perceptible. My work as a psychologist is predicated on the assumption of the possibility of change. But such change is not a road to Damascus moment or an instantly integrated new paradigm. It is often slowly and painfully mined for ,extracted resisted and replete with cyclic relapses to old ways. With hard work, old harmful habits can be changed and new constructive habits acquired

So given Abbott's form thus far, as the clichéd advise warns: don't hold your breath for this transformation. Furthermore , peoplemay have voted for Abbott, but many don't like him all that much. His popularity has remained consistently low, and he has won the election but not our hearts and minds. The people seem to have fallen in step with his espoused pragmatism and unembellished simplicity. The voters didn't like the others much, and Abbott's slogan messages were easy to grasp and remember, so he would do.

To be fair, projections onto a public personas can bely the inner man; however Tony Abbott has revealed an obdurate obtuseness regarding the big and complicated questions that confront Australians and the world today.

Greg Craven defends Abbott saying that he is complicated and paradoxical conundrum.

Tony has made it clear: he doesn't do, complicated, he only does simplistic. Or in the words of the minders, he has remained focused and on message. In his interviews he speaks slowly and hesitantly as though addressing one small child, rather than a grown up populace. As though collectively we would not be able to grasp the detail.

" We will release our costing in good time", he states, nods head and pauses, "unlike the government before us." As it turned out the costs, a puny 8 page summary, were only 'released' by the then shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey two days before the election.

Nor does Abbott frame his concerns morally or with a sense of the lives of others.

Tony Abbott has consistently denied the science of climate change, and his obsession to dismantle the carbon price rests on this personal obsession driven by willful ignorance.

"In three years time the carbon tax will be gone." But will the real problem of global warming be over?

He may as well have added , and our emissions will have risen. According to the latest science, global warming will have continued on its alarming upward trend. A recently leaked IPCC report warns that, sea levelscould rise by three feet, by the end of the century, if emissions continue to increase at current levels.

But the fate of the earth, is not on the agenda of our new PM and his team of climate deniers.

Meanwhile we [the people] seem to be in the grip of a Stockholm like syndrome. This syndrome is a psychological adjustment, whereby those held captive, identify ally join with or defend those to whom they are held hostage. This syndrome has also been thought to occur in people in abusive relationships. They declare their love for the abuser despite all maltreatment.

This is less mysterious than it seems. It is a primal survival mechanism. When someone, for example a child or partner, perceives themselves to be dependent on or impotent against a powerful person they surrender to the need to be looked after or not harmed.

We are stuck with this new old regime for at least three years, so we are setting out to make the best of it.

The commentators are hastening to look for the silver lining gild the lily or at least to talk up Tony. Paula Mathewson boldly asks, could Tony Abbott be our most successful Prime Minister? But has this man on the brink changed more than his image, from that of a man photographed in red speedoes to a man in lycra bicycle shorts .

As an older woman I could do without all those tight lycra groin shots: I resent the slightly sexualized warrior scenes of a 58 year old man frantically demonstrating that he still has it. A PM in waiting " turning commando", and leaping over tires, to show he is at one with defense forces on training exercises.

The image makers have instructed him to say "careful and methodical," carefully and methodically, and to try to look interested in babies instead of seeming to want to plant a kiss on their mother's shiny hair This is no honey moon period, instead its more like the curate and his egg.

Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"

"True Humility" by George du Maurier, originally published in Punch, 1895.

So now that we have him we might as well try to be positive about him. Will he do better than expected, or than his behavior and words until now have indicated?

No change is evident yet. His first actions are to attend to preparing legislation to repeal the carbon tax. He has had immediate consultations to design this legislation and has declared that the minor parties in the senate , should come to heel.

The defeated ALP and the minor senate parties should immediately pass this legislation: because I/we the new government have a clear mandate. As Chris Bowen has retorted, the ALP "now has a mandate to oppose".

So I just don't see it; the new respectful Tony. I see the old haranguer, and blunderer albeit somewhat tempered in his delivery. But Abbott has been let off the hook largely because we had swallowed the message and polls declared he was unstoppable. The coalition has claimed that the previous government was ruining us all through the carbon tax. Even though The Economist rated the Rudd government as a better economic bet.

Abbot has relentlessly without any conscience, Christian or otherwise, falsely branded a price on carbon as a terrible impost on ordinary Australians. Something that would bring ruin on us all. Conversely in repealing it, his job is largely done and we are all saved. His links to the scurrilous IPA climate denier institute are widely publicized. Nothing new here.

When he says I will keep my promise and his first task is to organize , carefully and plan fully and methodically his dismantling of a price on carbon, this is not keeping a promise to the people.

Is this really a nod and wink to buddies who would stand to gain from this policy: the backers of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Otherwise he is in no hurry to actually convene Parliament. Nothing much, ,to see or talk about here. This is not government for and by the people of Australia.

Since becoming PM Elect, Tony Abbot has affirmed his commitment to these promises, [or threats]. Ending the carbon price, stopping the boats and ending the mining tax, while giving carte blanche to mining interest, reducing Foreign Aid  by $4.5 billion…oh and building a few roads. We are to remain inequitably rich and very mean. This injustice should enrage us writes Jason Childs.

Meanwhile no mention is being made of that faux policy, Direct Action on Climate, just of the dismantling of environmental protection and of withdrawing support for renewable energy by dismantling the successful clean energy fund.

There is no compassion for the pain and plight of refugees. No mention of caring for their life or limb.

Just saving money, that hitherto has been expended on cruel policies.

I cannot find a "New Tony Great Leader" here. A great leader would heed the warnings of experts about our climate emergency. A great leader would care about the vulnerable and respect their human rights. Even a merely good enough leader would be aware of his responsibility to future generations, as caretaker not plunderer of the planet. Another great leader Martin Luther King warned us of the need to keep awake. And this is as true for our current looming climate catastrophe as it has ever been.

Abbott has declared that the Government has changed and is now open for business. What he means is the old last century early industrialized business. But their day is rapidly passing. Coal in the ground will eventually have no value above it. We have to divest from this old order if we are to survive as a species.

Peak oil is alive and well and costing the earth. It is doomed . It is last century.

A Churchill for our times would recognize the emergency, fight for our survival and prepare and set us up with renewables and infrastructure for the necessary new order.

Unfortunately we who care and are awake to what the science is telling us can only maintain the rage and work damn hard, towards limiting the damage of this tired old inept and immoral leadership.