OK, for those of you who’ve read my previous blogs, where I’ve clearly been somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I’d say that there comes a time to speak seriously, a time to say what you mean. I need people to understand that this is not a satiric piece, that I’m speaking from the heart, because I suspect that some of you will judge me by your past experience of my blogs.

You see, in the past, I’ve often said things that I don’t mean, but I was being “ironic”. I don’t really believe the things I wrote, and neither should you.

So when I say that I think we should all vote for Tony Abbott, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. (Ok, obviously we can’t all vote for Tony Abbott. We need to be in his electorate to do that, but I mean, we should vote for the party he leads. We don’t directly elect the PM. I know there’s been some confusion about this over the past couple of years!) And I’m not just saying this because I’m concerned that in the post-election Liberal-controlled employment market, I’ll be unemployable if I don’t support Tony.

I’m saying it, because I understand that, like me, Tony may have been misunderstood. For example, when Tony said that he was “threatened by gays”, most people probably thought that he was speaking generally. Now that he has appeared on “60 Minutes” with his gay sister and her partner, we realize that he was probably being literal. After all, if you were Tony’s sibling, wouldn’t you threaten him?

Tony Abbott has also announced that he wouldn’t allow his religious views to dominate his policies. This is a fine and proper thing. His religious views are personal and shouldn’t influence his decisions in the political arena. Similarly, I have personal views on things like slavery and child abuse, but, if I were in politics, I wouldn’t allow these to influence my decisions. For example, if someone made a good economic case for slavery – for example, the proprietor of a news organization – I’d put my petty, personal qualms aside for the national good. I’d understand that slavery has its merits, better to have a job than none at all, and slavery would go a long way towards solving the problem of the homeless. Of course, no-one is proposing slavery at the moment; I merely give this as an example of how a person’s deeply held personal position need not be an impediment to doing something that one regards as wrong or immoral.

Some unkind people are suggesting that Tony is insincere, and that the “new” Tony is reminiscent of the “real” Julia prior to the 2010 election, but I find that absurd. For years, Tony has been someone who changes his position from moment to moment, from audience to audience. To accuse him not being “real” because he’s showing yet another aspect of his chameleon type nature is to miss the true nature of the man. Remember this is the person who said that he opposed the emissions trading scheme, and that it would be far more efficient to simply introduce a carbon tax.

So from this point forward, you’ll find me a staunch defender of Tony. I’ll put the conservative case. As Tony said in his speech to the IPA:

“Based on his papers’ 1972, support for the Whitlam Government our guest of honour tonight was once described as a “recovering socialist”. I suspect we will discover later on just how completely he has been cured!

John Howard has said that Rupert Murdoch has been by far Australia’s most influential international businessman; but I would like to go a little further. Along with Sir John Monash, the Commander of the First AIF which saved Paris and helped to win the First World War, and Lord Florey a one-time provost of my old Oxford College, the co-inventor of penicillin that literally saved millions of lives, Rupert Murdoch is probably the Australian who has most shaped the world through the 45 million newspapers that News Corp sells each week and the one billion subscribers to News-linked programming.”

Rupert is a hero, comparable to a war hero. So all you left wingers who think he’s just doing what he does for personal gain and glory, you should be honoring him this ANZAC Day. Screw those insignificant diggers.