Australia elects PM who vows to cut taxes, aid and immigration
AUSTRALIA’s new prime minister immediately set to work yesterday on a right-wing policy agenda that many Tories could only dream of carrying out in Britain.
Hours after defeating the ruling Labor party, British-born Tony Abbott slipped into cycling gear for a ride through Sydney’s suburbs – and then got straight down to business.
Top of the list is implementing his promise to get tough on immigration by ‘ turning back’ the asylum boats bringing refugees to the country, while pledging to slash Australia’s foreign aid budget.
The 55-year-old Oxford graduate also said one of his first moves would be to reverse the climate change consensus by scrapping taxes on carbon emissions.
The resounding victory for the conservative Liberal leader was applauded by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who controls up to 70 per cent of the newspaper market in Australia. He Tweeted: ‘Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy.’
And in an intriguing prediction, Mr Murdoch added: ‘Others nations to follow in time.’
Among the first to congratulate Mr Abbott by phone was David Cameron, who later wrote on Twitter that it will ‘ be great to work with another centre-right leader’.
The two men spoke for several minutes, agreeing to talk later in more detail about policy issues.
Mr Abbott said he would overturn many of the failed policies of the last government after scoring a landslide victory over Kevin Rudd’s turbulent Labor, which had been in power since 2007.
There are predictions that when the counting is over the Liberals will have won close to 90 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. ‘Australia is again open for business,’ Mr Abbott declared as he posed victoriously with his three daughters and his wife, Margaret.
But as the celebrations died down it was quickly time to roll up his sleeves, assemble his public service chiefs and promise to ‘ hit the ground running’.
Mr Abbott said his government would swiftly implement a measure he has termed ‘operation sovereign borders’, aimed at intercepting Indonesian fishing vessels carrying asylum- seekers. The navy will be ordered to stop craft as soon as they enter Australian waters and promptly turn them round.
The policy has been described as ‘crazy’ by opponents, but to many in Australia Mr Abbott is a refreshing ‘Action Man’ compared to the ‘nerdy’ Mr Rudd.
Born in London, he moved Down Under with his Australian parents when he was almost three.
A graduate in economics and law at the University of Sydney, he returned to Britain to study politics and philosophy at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. There, he earned a ‘blue’ in boxing and was also a keen champion of Margaret Thatcher.
On his return to Australia, he trained briefly as a Catholic priest, earning the nickname ‘the Mad Monk’, before becoming a key figure in the Liberal Party.
He served as employment minister in John Howard’s government. between 1998 and 2003.
Many accused him of being gaffeprone and mocked his tendency to punctuate sentences with drawnout ‘ehs’. But as opposition leader, he watched Labor implode before successfully staking his claim to Australia’s highest office.