Abbott: Australia’s Sarah Palin

Just recently on Radio National’s Breakfast program Abbott was asked to respond to GetUp’s advertisement which highlights, among other things, his attitude towards women. His response:

... GetUp is basically operating as an arm of the Labor Party and I think that if GetUp is fair dinkum they would go back and pick quotes Julia Gillard made back in the 1980s when she was the President of the Australian Union of Students just as they have gone back to the 1970s with some of these quotes of mine ...

Gratuitously criticising GetUp - an independent, grass-roots community advocacy organisation that doesn’t back any particular party - may divert attention from the issue, as may references back to the 1970s, but how does Abbott explain away his entire blog dedicated to “The hypocrisy of the women’s movement”.

Perhaps people can change? Perhaps something Abbott said 12 months or two years ago has no bearing on what he thinks today? According to Voltaire a man can’t change his character so easily: “... as long as his nerves, his blood and his marrow are in the same state, his nature will not change any more than a wolf’s and a marten’s instinct ...”.

I haven’t noticed Abbott changing the body of which he’s so fond, and Voltaire’s truism is supported by the opinions of those who know Abbott: when Father Bill Wright was asked in March this year what he thought Tony Abbott would like to see in an ideal world his response shot back: “Catholic morality.”

Damon described the possibility of Palin as President as a “bad Disney movie”. The prospect of Abbott as Prime Minister of Australia conjures up images of a Cohen Brothers tragi-comedy. The Liberals are trying to generate “trust issues” around Gillard, which may be fair enough, but voters also need to assess whether they can trust Abbott to be more or less progressive, more or less inclusive, or more or less responsible with power.

On the face of it one must doubt it: can you really trust someone so willing to opportunistically disclaim his well documented and obviously entrenched values and opinions just so he gets over the line?

Bukowski may be right: “Born into this ... into a place where the masses elevate fools ...”