We are still talking about Tony Abbott as I suggested that we would be during that week in September in which he was deposed. On that occasion I wrote: "Abbott promises to behave much better than Rudd did. However, he will still loom large, and is the sort of person who won't walk away from his firm commitments like opposition to climate action and gay marriage. He may still become a real thorn in Turnbull's side." I also wrote that the demeanour of Abbott's allies would be crucial for government unity.

Since that time former treasurer Joe Hockey has declared in his farewell speech that destabilisation of prime ministers has to stop. But it hasn't stopped, and a trickle of nit-picking by Abbott loyalists has now become a flood. Abbott himself has been thrown a lifeline by the Paris massacre. It has enabled him to shadow Malcolm Turnbull by putting an alternative point of view on how to challenge Islamic State. International and national security has become his point of difference.

Illustration: John Spooner

For many people this Turnbull-Abbott conflict is just a re-rerun of the Julia Gillard-Kevin Rudd contest. But there are important differences. One is that the Liberal conflict seems much more ideological. While Gillard was from the Left and Rudd from the Right, the Labor conflict was much more about personal ambition and the survival of the government than ideology. In practice there wasn't much policy difference between Gillard and Rudd. They agreed on lots of things. Consequently the Left and the Right were fractured and all over the shop during the Labor leadership challenges.

Remarkably, the last few months have confirmed that the modern Liberals are a highly ideological party. Turnbull and Abbott have very different world views for leadership rivals within the one party. Their presence as leadership contenders suggests that the Liberals are now a broader church than Labor. They also appear to be highly factionalised.