Former Liberal prime minister says the last thing the Coalition should do under Malcolm Turnbull is ‘keep copying Labor’

Tony Abbott has intensified his critique of the Senate, and renewed his implicit criticism of the recent budget, arguing Australia has become “part of the weak government club” because centre-right politicians cannot get their agenda through the Senate.



Abbott, who is currently in Israel, used an interview on 2GB on Wednesday night to empathise cautiously with the big banks’ fight back against the $6bn levy and to issue a public warning that the Coalition should not “look like Labor”.

The exhortation that the Coalition should not look like Labor was in response to a question about whether “the Turnbull experiment” had failed – a question that referenced recent negative commentary from Abbott’s former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, about the government’s 12th consecutive loss in the Newspoll.

When the levy broke: why the banks' fight with the Coalition is just beginning Read more

While Abbott has been hedging his post-budget commentary, Credlin has used her media platforms to argue the budget “owes more to the ghost of Labor leaders past than it does to Liberal fundamentals of debt reduction, prudent spending, lower taxes and smaller ­government”.

Abbott on Wednesday evening stood by previous comments he has made since the leadership change about the corrosive impact of changing prime ministers before they have had an opportunity to face the voters – but he made his argument by contending the government should not, under any circumstances, resemble Labor.

“I thought we made a big mistake when we copied Labor in the last term of parliament,” the former prime minister said. “The last thing we want to do is keep copying Labor. A revolving door prime ministership is a bad thing in principle.

“I think the less the Coalition looks like Labor, the better.”

Abbott’s remarks about not copying opponents comes in the context of much of the post-budget commentary framing last week’s economic statement as “Labor lite” because it is high taxing and high spending.

The former prime minister told 2GB last week’s budget was the budget you have when the Senate won’t pass a centre-right reform agenda and he said it was clear that, as a consequence, Australia was “part of the weak government club, we are part of the world’s weak government club”.

The former prime minister was asked whether or not he supported the $6bn levy on the big banks. He noted the budget had not been prepared by “backbenchers from Warringah”.

Abbott reasoned banks were an “easy target” and he could “certainly understand why the banks are fighting back – why wouldn’t they?”

Abbott said that, as a member of the government, he supported the budget – but he predicted the banks’ fight would roll on for some time.