Egg on their faces

Friday, 20th August 2010

Win or lose, Tony Abbott has confounded Canberra and his Labor and media critics, argues James Paterson

Just 24 hours after this edition of Spectator Australia hits newsstands, Australians will pass judgement on the Rudd-Gillard Government and Tony Abbott’s Opposition. Whilst the final outcome of the election is unclear, one thing is very clear: many in the media and the Labor Party completely underestimated Tony Abbott, with potentially disastrous consequences for the Labor Government.

If Tony Abbott achieves what many thought was unthinkable just a few weeks ago, and returns the Coalition to power after just three years in the wilderness, he will go down as perhaps the most successful Opposition Leader in post-war Australian history. Already at least partly responsible for toppling a Prime Minister who was once the most popular in opinion poll history, and forcing one of the most dramatic policy reversals in modern Australian politics, Abbott could also cement his place in Liberal Party history with a win on August 21.

Even if the Coalition falls a few seats short of government, as polling suggests, Abbott will have almost single-handedly delivered a result that few imagined possible only a year ago. Whilst it is certainly true that there is no such thing as a perfect political campaign, just like there is no such thing as a perfect football match, Abbott’s performance in the campaign so far has been disciplined, measured and almost error-free. Labor hardman Graham Richardson admits Abbott ‘has not put a foot wrong.’ Should the Opposition narrowly fail to win government, Abbott will have an extremely strong claim to remain Leader, and the Liberal Party would be wise to do everything it can to persuade him to remain so.

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Eric

August 20th, 2010 2:57am Report this comment

Great article - spot on!

All too often, the media get away with making predictions to which they are not held accountable.

The press gallery are the ones who are supposed to be clued in and switched on, yet their attitude towards Tony Abbott demonstrates just how out of touch they are.

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