Writing in Liberal magazine former PM argues serious policy change requires election of ‘someone prepared to do it’

Tony Abbott has taken another veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull, writing a new essay to argue Australia needs serious policy changes that will happen when “someone who’s prepared to do them will actually get elected”.

Cementing his intention to stay in politics longer than Turnbull, who plans to retire from parliament when he loses the prime ministership, Abbott has pledged to remain​ “as a vocal MP for as long as Liberal-conservative values need a strong advocate”.

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Writing ​in the Liberal party magazine the Contributor, Abbott argues that Australians are feeling “downcast and have much reason to be” but he tries to encourage his colleagues to remember their “challenge is not to fall silent, because a majority that stays silent does not remain a majority”.

He then lists his policy priorities, saying “we need to remember that good values don’t triumph because they have the numbers. They have the numbers because they have the appeal.”

He argues Australia needs to dramatically cut its immigration program (to take pressure off house prices), abolish the Human Rights Commission (because it has become “a kind of politically-correct thought police”), consider buying a nuclear-powered submarine (which would “strike fear into the hearts of any potential enemy”), and build a new coal-fired power station (to “keep the lights on”).

His essay will be distributed in hard copy at the West Australian Liberal party’s state conference this weekend, starting 2 September.

Turnbull is scheduled to appear at the conference, along with Abbott and party luminaries.

The WA Liberal party is bracing for a potentially bruising fight at the conference over its preselection process, with some members trying to replicate the voting reforms championed by Abbott in New South Wales.

Conference attendees will be asked to consider whether rank-and-file Liberal party members ought to be allowed to vote in preselection contests, in a significant break from current practice (where candidates are chosen by a committee of delegates appointed by branches).

Abbott argues in his essay ​ that his policy priorities are “common sense,” and have the benefit of being inevitable.

“And because they’re common sense, they will eventually happen because someone who’s prepared to do them will actually get elected,” he writes.

“We need to remember that good values don’t triumph because they have the numbers. They have the numbers because they have the appeal.”

“All of us need to speak out more with our workmates, with our friends, with our family members, and with everyone interested in public life so that others will appreciate that decent values and traditional institutions continue to have their adherents.”

Turnbull wrote an opinion piece last month for the Courier-Mail, in which he criticised Abbott’s policy approach and listed his own achievements.

“They’re not theories, or thought bubbles, or glib one-liners,” he said in his column.

“This is a time for builders, not wreckers. For leaders who get things done and don’t just talk. For negotiators and deal-makers who trade in results, not in platitudes.”