Tony Abbott: A leadership crisis or a leadership vacuum? - Women's Agenda

Tony Abbott: A leadership crisis or a leadership vacuum?

In a party room meeting yesterday the Prime Minister Tony Abbott shared some advice for dealing with the media. He urged his colleagues to talk up the government’s achievements, talk down Bill Shorten and end the interview there. 

This hardly seems new.  In opposition and in government, Abbott has led a team that has steadfastly and consistently couched its narrative by reference to the Labor party. 

The day Abbott defeated a leadership spill he told Leigh Sales on ABC’s 7.30

“The point I have been telling my colleagues is that I am a fighter. I know how to beat Labor Party leaders. I beat Kevin Rudd, I beat Julia Gillard, I can beat Bill Shorten as well.” 

Beating opponents is one thing in politics, and a patently important thing come election time. But, leading a government and a nation, is another thing entirely. Tony Abbott’s fixation on the former was pointed out by Liberal MP Dennis Jensen who openly questioned Abbott’s leadership ahead of the spill.

Now, Tony Abbott has been an absolutely fantastic opposition leader: in my view, the best the country’s ever had. In effect, he has been a great war time leader. We now need a great peacetime leader and quite frankly, the Prime Minister is still operating on that wartime footing.

In that context Abbott’s “media message” to his colleagues is frustrating.  Can’t the government aim a little higher than being “less bad” than the alternative? Is a government that can legitimately rest upon its own achievements without reference to the alternative’s flaws too much to ask?

In yesterday’s party room meeting Abbott reportedly said the government will shift its focus from the policies it has been unable to get through the Senate to smaller things that are “meaningful” to the person on the street.

This strikes me as curious.

How are big ticket policies affecting tertiary education and health not enormously meaningful to the people on the street? And, isn’t passing legislation through the House of Representatives and the Senate, feral or otherwise, the government’s job?

What are these “smaller things” that are meaningful to people on the street? How can the government fix them if not through legislation?

Assuming the government has a plan for these intricacies, here are a couple of “meaningful” issues to tackle.

 Childcare. It’s repetitive, I know. But do you know why? Because it legitimately affects “people on the street” in a very real sense, every day. Affordable, high quality childcare should not be rare and inaccessible. 

 Housing affordability. This is self-explanatory; not being able to afford a place to live, quite obviously, affects people every day.  Homelessness might seem like a “small” problem if you’ve never encountered or contemplated it but it is not a small problem

 Domestic violence. 22 women have been killed in Australia as a result of domestic violence this year. 22. This year. Investing in prevention and adequately funding services to support victims is meaningful. Very very meaningful.

Access to health and education. Jobs. The growing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The environment. Human rights. Tolerance. Sexual harassment and assault. Transport. Infrastructure.

The list of things that are meaningful to Australians is very long but it’s hard to argue that any of them are small. What exactly does Abbott have in mind?

It’s difficult to imagine any meaningful issue that will be addressed without leadership. And that in itself is pertinent. Is Abbott capable of leadership beyond beating the Labor party? 

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