The day after his ouster, Abbott promised no sniping, no destabilisation. For the good of the party and the nation, he pledged to make the transition to Turnbull as easy as possible.

That undertaking lasted barely a week. Abbot has every right to define and defend his legacy as he sees it. But there is an added resonance now to everything he says and does.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. It's what happens when you dump a first term prime minister. There is a guerilla campaign afoot that would make even Kevin Rudd blush.

In the 17 days since his ouster, Abbott turned to his comfort zone, giving two interviews for The Daily Telegraph, one for The Australian, and spoke to Hadley on 2GB.

Not happy: Liberal senator Eric Abetz. Alex Ellinghausen

Morrison attacked

Amongst it all, he branded Scott Morrison a liar, those who ousted him insincere and disingenuous in their motives, gave Labor ammunition by repeatedly noting that there was no policy difference between him and Turnbull - be it on gay marriage, climate change, tax reform philosophy or border protection - and, ultimately, Turnbull was a weak leader.

"Back in 2009, the Coalition was in diabolical difficulty, absolutely diabolical difficulty, because we were making weak compromises with a bad government and I said that the job of the-then Leader of the Opposition, the leader of the Coalition, was to stand for things, was to establish some clear policy positions on which to run and fight an election," he told Hadley as to why he moved on Turnbull on December 1, 2009.


As Turnbull was opening his economic summit, and new Education Minister Simon Birmingham was putting to the sword one of Abbott's most damaging and lingering policy proposals, university fee deregulation, Abbott was ensuring the evening news would not belong solely to his conquerors.

Appearing under the guise of wishing to thank the host and his listeners for the past six years, Abbott, like Abetz, appealed to the dismayed not to abandon the cause, nor start a rival conservative party.

The last time that happened, Australia ended up with One Nation, he noted, and the last thing "Australia needed was a rogue conservative party that is raging against the worlds".

He contended he would have easily won the next election because being unpopular in the polls had not hindered him in the past. Turnbull, he said, should be "competitive" at the next election.

He implicitly chided Turnbull and Scott Morrison for dumping university deregulation, noting it was inconsistent with their rhetoric about reform and the need for spending restraint.

Ultimately, however, he reminded people of why his own side turned against him. His inability to reflect on and acknowledge his own failures, let alone take corrective action, was writ large.

He still believes the Prince Philip knighthood was "an injudicious appointment", the damage from which should have been repaired by his subsequent decision to hand responsibility for bestowing further awards to the honours committee.

Not recognition that bringing back knighthoods and dames was a stupid decision, which insulted the nation he led and that the awards should have been junked altogether.


Blindness on budget

He was still unable to see that the 2014 budget, the start of his downfall, was laden with broken promises, not just with regard to the measures it contained, but its fundamental breaking of his compact with the people.

Abbott won the election campaigning foremost on trust. He promised no surprises and no getting into government and claiming things were worse than thought and having to act.

But: ​"It was a brave bold budget that turned out to be too gutsy for the Parliament that we had," he told Mitchell.

"The 2014 budget was exactly what out country needed from a new, innovative and reforming government."

"Given what we discovered when we got in there, it was justifiable."

Abbott noted correctly that when Labor dumped Rudd for Julia Gillard, "they thought they were doing the right thing".

"I took that government to minority status," he boasted of his prowess as Opposition leader.

Truth be told, Labor helped him in spades by ripping itself apart, led by the undermining of Rudd and his followers.

Abbott could well do the same to this government.