Abbott's 'low politics' hits world stage

So once again Tony Abbott has broken with diplomatic protocol and denigrated his Labor opponents to a world-wide audience in a crass bid to gain political kudos at home.

 

In October last year, he used a Washington Post interview to traduce the former government’s credentials in the most disparaging terms. Dr Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute recalled that he “winced” as he read Abbott’s violation of a basic tenet of diplomacy which eschews dragging domestic politics into the international arena. 

 

Now, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he has criticised Labor’s spending stimulus during the Global Financial Crisis arguing that its approach ignored immutable economic rules. Unfortunately, the fact that Australia actually gained widespread international commendation for its handling of the crisis was buried in his vacuous re-appraisal of recent economic history.

 

This kind of petty point-scoring is hardly in keeping with the “adult” image that he so desperately tries to portray.

 

Frank Carroll