Why Tony Abbott’s comeback doesn’t make sense

THE timing is almost politically perfect: Just as opinion polls are treating Malcolm Turnbull unkindly there is scuttlebutt of Tony Abbott’s return from exile.

So perfect it is difficult to believe.

We are getting used to Mr Abbott’s self-appointed role as a voice in the wilderness but today we are told he wants to lift his sights to again becoming Prime Minister.

Further, he has made the strange decision to adopt the comeback template of his Labor rival Kevin Rudd, according to a report in Fairfax.

Mr Abbott is reported to have confided his renewed ambitions to Tory friends during his current British visit.

Mr Abbott himself rejected the report on Twitter.

“As for unsourced, unattributed, unprofessional reports, the journalist in question is yet again making things up,” he wrote.

But if accurate, the report means Mr Abbott has junked his measured approach to Liberal Party dynamics of the past 12 months for an aggressive leadership chase.

And this doesn’t make sense.

It would be a direct contradiction of the unqualified, emphatic assurance Mr Abbott gave the Australian public on the ABC’s Four Corners just two months ago.

“The point I’ve made again and again, and let me repeat it here, is that the Abbott era is over. And the Liberal Party, rightly, wants to look forward not back,” he said in the program broadcast in early August.

“Now, I certainly want to be a constructive contributor to that process ...

“There’s a lot that I can do over the next three years to try to crystallise and clarify where centre-right politics in this country goes from here.

“But, in terms of the top job, the Abbott era, as I’ve said before, is well and truly over.”

But the speculation well and truly isn’t.

On September 26, Mr Abbott updated his parliamentary register of interests and among the declarations of presents such as a wetsuit, and airline assistance was a stark announcement.

“I have accepted an advisory board position for the newly established Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. The centre seeks to promote more widespread study and understanding of the Western canon,” he wrote.

This think tank had been on his mind for several months and he had originally been suggested as the fulltime head of the centre. But that would have required him to quit Parliament.

Instead, he has taken the board position, which will give him scope for international travel and access to the major right-wing forums.

But this doesn’t mean Mr Abbott wants to stay in Parliament to regain the leadership. His decision to remain an MP hard more to do with his love of the parliamentary vocation and an appreciation of the prominent pulpit it can provide.

Over the past 12 months he has been distinctive voice within the Liberal Party, sometimes with regrets over decision made when he was Prime Minister, sometimes with regrets over decisions by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

And his squad of former Abbott ministers and other loyalists have not stunted in criticising the Turnbull leadership.

But that is a long way from a leadership challenge. It might show a certain contempt for Turnbull, but even those taking part don’t believe the next Prime Minister will be Tony Abbott.

Originally published as Abbott’s comeback makes no sense