Well done Australia! A centre-Right party manages to win a landslide election by standing to cut immigration, lower taxes, end the obsession with CO2 emissions and reduce foreign aid.
Who would have thought it, eh? Not, it would seem, those in Britain who have spent the past two decades trying to convince the Tory party that the way to win elections is to drift towards the soggy centre.
On immigration, Abbott’s party takes the view that those who enter Australia illegally should be removed. On tax, Abbott’s centre right coalition are committed to scrapping some and lowering others (no doubt the Institute of Fiscal Study-types will disapprove).
Just like in the UK, in Australia in recent years swathes of public policy have been moulded by an obsession with CO2 emissions. Here in the UK, that has meant renewal targets and higher energy prices. In Australia, it has meant a carbon tax. Abbott has made it clear that he will undo the damage to wealth creation being inflicted by global warming dogma.
In terms of foreign policy, Abbott is committed to strengthening ties with the Anglosphere, while reducing overseas aid. Good – not just the right thing to be doing, but a vote winner, too.
“But what works for Australian conservatives might not work in Britain,” I am sure the SW1 pundits will tell us. “Australia's a different place”.
Indeed it is. The Aussies have banks, rather than state-subsidised basket cases, for a start. They have growth and rising living standards. But all that aside, we continue to share many similar outlooks and assumptions as two members of the Anglosphere.
“But it wasn’t really a case of Abbott winning the election,” the Guardianistas are starting to say. “It was a divided, poorly led Labor Party that lost it”.
Poorly led and divided like Gordon Brown’s Labour Party, you mean?
Hmm. I still think we UK Tories have much we could learn from Tony Abbott – without simply aping Australian conservatism.
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