Tony Abbott doesn’t want another election

Speaking on Adelaide radio yesterday Tony Abbott said that the last thing voters want is another election. Given the shocking polls, the shocking budget, and the shocking run the government is having, I’d say that the last thing Tony Abbott wants is an election. I’m sure that voters can make up their own minds.

Tony only likes elections when he calls for them, which reminded me of this little piece I wrote two years ago: ‘Guess what? The Liberals want an election’.

I never got around to updating it, however I’m sure that as it stands it might provide you with a bit of humour and more tellingly, trumpet loud and clear that Tony Abbott is only interested in elections when ‘he’ has a good chance of winning them. Some of the links have been removed as the sites they linked to are now ‘dead’ – most of them being to the Liberal Party’s own website, strangely.

So from the good ol’ days when Tony Abbott wasn’t the Prime Minister:

1. Feb 26, 2011: Tony Abbott calls for election on carbon tax.
2. March 9, 2011: From the Liberal Party website, Tony Abbott wants an election.
3. March 18, 2011: Abbott mocks Labor over ties to climate ‘extremists’ (and wants another election).
4. March 23, 2011: Abbott calls for new election on carbon tax.
5. May 11, 2011: Joe Hockey says Coalition will try to force early election (surprise, surprise).
6. May 12, 2011: Budget lacks legitimacy and integrity: Tony Abbott (and he demands an election).
7. May 15, 2011: On ABC Insiders Abbott calls for an election.
8. May 16, 2011: On Tony Abbott’s own web page . . . he calls for an election.
9. May 30, 2011: Julia Gillard listens to actors but not voters on carbon tax, says Tony Abbott (who wants an election).
10. May 30, 2011: Tony Abbott, Greg Hunt say Julia Gillard should go to election, avoid carbon tax ad campaign.
11. June 6, 2011: Tony Abbott says PM doesn’t have mandate to introduce carbon tax (plus he wants an election).
12. June 12, 2011: From the Liberal Party website, Tony Abbott wants an election.
13. June 20, 2011: Abbott calls for people’s vote on carbon tax.
14. June 30, 2011: Tony Abbott calls for an immediate election after ‘the experiment that failed’ (referring to a minority government).
15. July 2, 2011: Abbott interviewed in Port Lincoln. He calls for an election.
16. July 11, 2011: Pollution tax won’t cut emissions: Abbott (and he calls for an election).
17. July 13, 2011: Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott face angry public in carbon tax pitch to the nation (and Abbott calls for an election).
18. July 17, 2011: From the Liberal Party website, Tony Abbott wants an election.
19. Aug 16, 2011: Tony Abbott joins carbon tax rally to call for fresh election.
20. Sept 4, 2011: Abbott calls for election as PM digs in on leadership.
21. Oct 13, 2011: Scott Morrison calls for an election because of the blocked Malaysia deal.
22. Oct 16, 2011: A big week in politics (and Abbott wants an election).
23. Nov 2, 2011: Abbott renews call for election on migration policy.
24. Jan 24, 2012: Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne is urging Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call a federal election.
25. Feb 3, 2012: Here’s something different: Joe Hockey says that Rudd will be the new PM and he’ll call an election.
26. Feb 23, 2012: Opposition leader Tony Abbott says an election is the best way out of Labor leadership debacle.
27. Feb 23, 2012: Abbott to call election if government falls. WTF!
28. Feb 27, 2012: Vote a stay of execution for Julia Gillard, says Tony Abbott (and calls for an election).
29. Feb 28, 2012: End of distraction praised as Abbott calls for election.
30. April 23, 2012: Government pressured (by Christopher Pyne) to call election after Slipper steps aside as Speaker.
31. April 30, 2012: Abbott pressures independents over Thomson affair (and calls for an election).
32. May 25, 2012: In an interview with Neil Mitchell Joe Hockey says the people want an election (in other words, he does).
33. June 21, 2012: In an interview on 2GB Scott Morrison calls for an election.
34. July 16, 2012: Just had to put this one in. In reference to the Lib’s IR policy Hockey had this to say: We will release it well before the next election. The next election is scheduled for the 2^nd half of next year. If we followed the lead of the Labor Party, we would be releasing our policy in the second half of next year. (But I thought they wanted an election now).
35. July 17, 2012: Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne has laid out plans to move under-performing teachers out of the profession as part of its education policy (and calls for an election).
36. July 18, 2012: Joe Hockey wants another Labor leadership spill or else they should call an election.
37. July 20, 2012: According to Pyne, the Slipper scandal was yet another reason why the government should call an election.
38. July 21, 2012: “If this Government cannot solve the crisis at our borders then they should call an election” (Michael Keenan, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection).

And the above was only a sample! I’d not included YouTube videos of live interviews where there had been a call for an election and neither had I searched for statements from all the Liberal politicians. Who knows how many calls there might have been from Malcolm Turnbull or other prominent players. And neither had I bothered with the Nationals, of which I’m sure Barnaby Joyce would have raised the idea on numerous occasions.

We had calls for an election because of the carbon price, the Budget, The Slipper scandal, under-performing teachers, Nauru, border protection, migration, the Labor leadership challenge, Julia Gillard winning that challenge, no more distractions, the minority government, and Craig Thomson.

And on and on it went until the election was called. Until of course, when Rudd took over again and the calls resumed with vomitous regularity.

These days Tony must think the electorate is happy with the performance of both himself and his government, because, says he, it doesn’t want another election.

Truth is … Tony Abbott doesn’t want another election. Gosh, I wonder why.

 

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