A welcome change
Warmer reception for Abbott
WHEN Tony Abbott visits Hobart, he scores a busted lip. When he visits the Gold Coast, he scores a baby with his entree.
“It’s his first meeting with an ex-prime minister,” Natasha Hobson laughed moments after thrusting her eight-week-old son into the arms of the country’s most famous headbutt victim.
“I was really keen to get a photo of Timothy shirt-fronting him. I tried to get a headbutt photo as well but it didn’t quite work out.”
A week after crossing paths with a self-confessed anarchist called Astro in the streets of Hobart, Abbott flew north yesterday to hang out with friendlier faces at the Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce’s annual GC Showcase luncheon.
There was Natasha, the Logan Chamber of Commerce president. There were longtime developers Max Christmas and Norm Rix. There were countless small business owners lining up for selfies.
There was also a lot of love for a man not used to getting cuddles from strangers.
“He exemplifies the perseverance and determination that everybody needs to have,” Central Chamber president Martin Hall said in a welcome worthy of a selfconfessed “Liberal fan”.
“Regardless of which side of politics you support … you have to admire his spirit and determination or simply the bravery he displayed when he donned that famous pair of budgie smugglers.”
Mr Abbott’s swimwear got a couple of shout-outs from the lectern, as did Astro’s headbutt.
When the man of the moment finally got his hands on the microphone though, he preferred to talk about the past.
“I’ve been coming to the Gold Coast more than 50 years,” he revealed.
“When I was a kid, my mum and dad fell in love with the Gold Coast. We came up here every Christmas. We stayed at the old Pacific Hotel in Southport.
“After the Pacific Hotel was redeveloped, we rented flats at different places and for about 30 years my mum and dad had a unit in a block near Miami Beach.
“The thing I’ve always loved about the Gold Coast, quite apart from its can-do spirit, is the fact you don’t have to be rich to have a rich person’s lifestyle.”
Some of the homeless guys lining up for lunch at Havafeed may have disagreed with that, but Mr Abbott sure inspired plenty of headnodding at the Marriott.
“Government does not create wealth,” he said amid reflections on slow economic growth, the need for a “modest” scale back of immigration and values once taken for granted no longer being “so solid”.
“The only entities that create wealth are businesses and individuals and that’s exactly what you do … if we didn’t have you, we wouldn’t have what we so often take for granted.
“In the end, the job of government is to help us do our job better and more often than not, it’s to get out of the way ... and that’s certainly the message I’m doing my best to give my colleagues.”
Cue applause. Cue more selfies. Cue a distinct lack of headbutts.