Abbott says he wants stability after coup
I always knew that politics was a pretty brutal business. It’s a game of snakes and ladders, and yes, I’ve hit a snake.
Tony Abbott admits he may have been bruised after being toppled by Malcolm Turnbull, but says he wants to focus on the honour of having served the Australian people as prime minister.
In his first radio interview since been toppled as Liberal Party leader, Abbott told Ray Hadley on Sydney radio 2GB how he was feeling about losing the top job.
‘‘I always knew that politics was a pretty brutal business. It’s a game of snakes and ladders, and yes, I’ve hit a snake,’’ he said.
Abbott said he had never believed in watching his own back, preferring to focus on exposing the Labor opposition’s flaws.
Asked about the roles Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison played, he said a leader had to rely on the people closest to him.
‘‘Any leader who is watching his back is not focusing on the main job,’’ he said. ‘‘If you are watching your back, almost by definition you’re going backwards.’’
Abbott admitted Morrison had spoken to his chief of staff Peta Credlin three days before he was ousted in a party room ballot.
‘‘He’s obviously put one construction on the conversation, my office put a different construction on the conversation,’’ he said, referring to Morrison’s claim that he warned Abbott’s office of a ‘‘febrile’’ atmosphere amongst Liberal MPs.
‘‘The last thing I want Ray to come out of this interview is a headline, ‘Abbott son’,’’ he said.
Abbott said he hoped his removal would put an end to the ‘‘revolving door prime ministership’’.
‘‘Government can’t do what is necessary for the long-term good of our country if you’re subject to death by polls,’’ he said.
‘‘My hope is . . . that we get right away from this concept of changing the leader like you might change your clothes to suit the fashion.’’
Abbott listed scrapping Labor’s ‘‘bad taxes’’, stopping migrant boats, infrastructure projects, three free trade agreements and a
slams
Morri- ‘‘very, very good start’’ to budget repair as his achievements while prime minister.
He also cited an end to business welfare, a royal commission into trade union corruption, and ending the green veto on big development projects.
On the Turnbull government, Abbott insisted nothing had change on the policy front.
‘‘Climate change, the same. Border protection policy, the same. National security policy, the same,’’ he said.
‘‘And if you listen to the prime minister and the treasurer, they’re even using exactly the same phrases that Joe Hockey and I were using just a fortnight ago.’’
Abbott said he and Hockey were ‘‘absolute blood brothers’’ when it came to economic policies, and he could never have ‘‘casually sacrificed’’ the former treasurer to save his own prime ministership.
He also praised Credlin, saying ‘‘no-one’’ had worked longer and harder for the coalition’s success than her.
As for the future, he said he won’t be making any final decision before Christmas.
But the 57-year-old said he was too young to retire, adding that there wouldn’t be a by-election in his seat of Warringah any time soon.