Flip-Flop Tony

Making Sense Of Tony Abbott

One of the things that makes Tony Abbott's government seem terrible in one way (there are many) is the ideological baggage he has carried with him from Opposition into office. In particular has been this histrionic insistence that the Carbon 'Tax' was a terrible burden on the economy and how he has characterised its repeal as a great political victory - which dove tails with his statement that "Climate Change is Complete Crap". The Mining Tax gets a similar sort of, almost idiotic reduction of notions, right across the board where surpluses are categorically good and deficits are categorically bad, and coal is good and industries protected by tariffs are bad and so on. That there isn't a nuanced policy decision that can't be bludgeoned into stupidity with his ideological baggage.

However there is an entirely separate aspect to Tony Abbott's government and in particular Tony Abbott that gets missed is that he flip-flops pretty hard on all these ideologically charged policies. It is is as if he's dedicated to running these dreadful policies up the flagpole at least once, gauging how negatively the electorate responds, and if it's bad enough, he flip-flops away form the position. Case in point is the medicare co-payment that was one o the surprises in the May budget (which of course didn't pass), which he then backed down, only to spring on the $20 reduction for bulk billing, which he also then pulled when the furore reached a crescendo.

Abbott basically wants to hoe into Medicare and universal healthcare for largely ideological reasons - even though he tries to dress it up in fiscal terms - and he's made two runs at it; but in the face of electorate backlash, he's had to pull it both times. This is where we start to see a different kind of politician. Tony Abbott may indeed be a bigger opportunist with no particular beliefs than a committed ideologue. The record is in the public for us to see. Malcolm Turnbull has reported to us that Tony Abbott flip-flopped twice on climate change, going so far auto describe himself as a weathervane. Whatever the strengths of his political persona might be, contrary to the presentation, he's hardly the kind of politician you would call a man of conviction.

What is emerging instead is a man who is rather ad hoc about the issues as they come and how he deals with them; who is also a master at contorting himself into suiting the prevailing winds of public anger. Otherwise it is nigh impossible to make sense of politician who slammed the ALP government for 1 broken promise, but then proceeds to break a dozen of his own promises once in government, and further more flip-flops twice on a point of policy which wasn't even contested at the election only 16 months ago.

When you add it all up, you get the picture of a man who is so much more of an opportunist than any man of conviction. So much so that we might have to take his professed ideological hardline as something he adopted along the way to get ahead; and maybe he doesn't even have those as non-negotiable. He's just been bluffing us really hard into thinking they're non-negotiable.

Indeed, he might very well say anything at any given time on any given topic - and try to pass it off as policy. Which is exactly what he did when he was challenged about his accomplishment as the Minster for Women. It's pretty psychopathic - and perhaps unsurprising because it is more than likely our political process and system rewards a certain kind of - almost pathological - opportunism. In Tony Abbott's case, these traits are very pronounced, and it's getting harder by the day to push the thought out of one's head. More importantly, what we're seeing is a guy who is nowhere near as steadfast as he lets on.

The problem is, if there's one thing worse than a man of conviction with all the wrong convictions, it is a man who has no convictions but is willing to do and say anything to grasp for power and keep it. Australia is in deep trouble under this government which managed to deter investment in renewable energy so much so, there's been an 88% drop in investments into renewables in Australia. That minus 88% tells you this government is not only doing a crappy job of controlling emissions, it's deterring business. The play at ideological purity about not handing out welfare entitlements has amazingly resulted in car manufacturing retreating out of Australia. He's hurting his own constituency for what reason? We could put some positive light on such things if he was going somewhere with this, but all indications are that they are collateral damage in a massive game of bluff he's running on the populace. He's doing all this so we don't find out that the doesn't really believe any of it.

So, if you thought it was terrible living in an Australia run by a terrible conservative ideologue, think again. Because deep down, he seems to have no principles whatsoever.