PRIME Minister Tony Abbott
channelled his political mentor John Howard and made the first step to
removing the “barnacles” from the government ship, admitting his team
had had a “ragged” week and backing down on his plan to cut Defence
Force entitlements.
Mr Abbott’s mea culpa came as an Access Economics report revealed
the budget deficit is expected to blow out to $34.7 billion, $5 billion
more than estimated.
In a 46-minute media conference, Mr Abbott confronted head-on a
horror week that included his office bungling the status of the GP
co-payment, a messy performance on ABC cuts and the Liberals’ loss in
Victoria. A statesmanlike Mr Abbott didn’t once bristle as he was
peppered by the Canberra press gallery on everything from the GP
co-payment to same-sex marriage.
“We have quite a bit to talk about today,’’ he said at the start of the final sitting week of parliament for the year.
After
confirming $17 million worth of defence entitlements would be returned,
the PM told the media pack: “You will want to put your views to me so
the floor is yours.”
The PM declared that:
• HIS government had been “ragged” last week, but it was just “atmospherics”;
•
HIS multi-billion paid parental leave scheme would have to be tweaked
to pass the senate, but would not be dumped despite pressure from within
his party;
• THE government would push ahead with the $7 GP co-payment until a compromise solution was reached;
•
HE backed his office and chief of staff Peta Credlin but conceded he
was “bemused” his office had briefed media on the end of the co-payment;
•
HE agreed he had broken a promise not to cut funds from the ABC, but
said it was because Labor had left the economy in a worse position than
he had initially thought.
Mr Abbott has danced around questions
for weeks, rarely fronting the media, but yesterday he was frank, prime
ministerial and even jovial.
It was one of his best performances and akin to Mr
Howard, who often held hourlong media conferences to address the public
when the government was battling.
“The Howard government was in a
diabolic position at different periods in the first term and yet it went
on to be arguably the most successful post-war government Australia has
had,’’ the PM said.
Mr Abbott, who yesterday marked his fifth
anniversary as Liberal leader, said the government would push ahead with
all its budget measures.
“The general rule is that we persist
with the budget measure as announced until such time as an alternative
is agreed in the senate, or an alternative way forward is established,’’
he said, saying “broken promises” were due to budget changes.
“Going
into (the) election, the then government was telling us the deficit for
that year would be $18 billion. It turned out to be $48 billion.’’
Mr
Abbott said the government had achieved much this year, including the
abolition of the carbon and mining taxes and stopping the boats.
PRECISELY when Tony Abbott’s Coalition government began steering off course is hard to say.
Hindsight would suggest that it never had its compass set properly from the day it set sail last September.
It
has been 14 months, and still the Coalition has failed to prosecute the
case against the former Labor government’s fiscal recklessness.
It needed to do this from the day it came into office and repeat it every day that followed.
The
PM’s attempt yesterday to take back the helm from a hapless crew — by
holding a 46-minute press conference — will be cast by some as a
significant moment in trying to reset the course after a haggard week
where the government looked all but lost at sea.
But as one insider said, it was more about letting the press gallery get some “shit off their liver”.
Abbott still has the luxury of time on his side.
His
problem, and it is one that will continue to dog him unless some of his
colleagues get their act together, is that the “atmospherics”, as he
describes them, are clouding a reality that isn’t going away.
That reality is a budget position that is still in a shambles, and getting worse.
The vanity project that is the senate stops the government from fulfilling the task it was elected to undertake.
To fix the budget.
This is the national priority. And people need to be reminded why.
Image : Source
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