Forget the wing - put Abbott at five-eighth

The Australian automotive industry is preparing for America to shutter any number of local manufacturing plants.

Every Labor government since Whitlam's has talked incessantly about a knowledge economy that remains elusive.

And America, again, is putting the frighteners into local defence contractors as it talks of scaling back its international partnerships.

If Mr Abbott says he can't do anything about these global matters and that it's all Labor's doing, then he is going to miss a mighty big opportunity to demonstrate real thought leadership and real potential for innovative strategies.

We have an unrealistic expectation that our thought leaders will also be innovators.

Julia Gillard, by virtue of holding the top spot is, de facto, a thought leader but she is no innovator. To her credit she makes no claim to be; like Malcolm Fraser and John Howard she leaves the innovation to others. And therein lies the problem for Mr Abbott. Ms Gillard has snagged us with a traditionally conservative strategy.

So we are looking at Tony Abbott through an alternative lens. We want him to act differently.

This is why Malcolm Turnbull looked attractive. He gave the appearance of being polymorphic and heterophylic when in reality, he may be mildly heterophylic, but he was no more polymorphic than Mr Abbott. Which is why Mr Turnbull has been unable in reality to transform his monomorphic success in business and banking into politics.

We looked at Kevin Rudd through a similarly optimistic lens. As prime minister Mr Rudd gave a public appearance of being a polymorphic heterophil but history illustrates that the image was powder-coated in spin.

The Labor government is doing an appalling job in communicating policy innovations such as clean energy and the national broadband network, let alone demonstrating dynamic thought leadership for what's hot in the next two years.

There's a big space out there to be filled by a polymorphic heterophil who can play at five eight.