Ambitious Abbott arrives on a mission

Walking through Kwinana Marketplace unannounced last Thursday morning, Tony Abbott needed no introduction to shoppers.

Followed closely by his entourage of minders, a stream of people soon joined the end of the “Abbott Express” to get a glimpse of the man many believe is set to be the next Prime Minister of Australia.

Even during his one-on-one interview with the Telegraph last week at The Coffee Club, Mr Abbott obliged to requests for photos and a quick hello.

One gentleman walked up and posed next to him for a “selfie”, while another shopper said it was great to see Mr Abbott in the flesh.

But this was not meant to be a Kevin Rudd-inspired fan-frenzy shopping centre visit.

The stop-in was about his party’s candidate Donna Gordin who Mr Abbott believes can help secure his party government if she can wrestle the seat from Labor.

Not since the seat of Brand was created in 1984 has it been held by the Liberal party.

But Mr Abbott believes voters are ready for change, in every sense of the word.

“I accept this has been a Labor area, but things are changing,” he said. “I think there are a lot of people here who are aspirational and they appreciate the best way to look after their families is not to have government do it for them, but to have a government that empowers people rather than one which is constantly hitting people with more taxes and regulation.”

With his party committed to reducing the size of the public service by 12,000 jobs and to scrap the School Kids Bonus scheme, Mr Abbott rejected the idea families in Brand would be worse off under a Liberal government.

“No, it will be easier to make ends meet under a Liberal government, because we would abolish the carbon tax but keep the compensation,” he said.

“And that’s our key message; we’ll abolish the carbon tax and keep the compensation.”

The School Kids Bonus, Mr Abbott claims, is something the Government cannot afford and it has nothing to do with education.

With much of his rhetoric about the state of the economy and calling for an end of “spending borrowed money”, Mr Abbott said he had no immediate plans to increase the Newstart payment.

“We just don’t have any money,” he said.

“Any additional spending that this Government puts forward is spending borrowed money.

“I don’t mind borrowing for capital purposes, but to borrow for current purposes is going to get us in a lot of trouble.

“Without any way pretending people are not doing it tough on Newstart, plainly, you do do it tough on Newstart.

“We just don’t have the money to increase it at this time... we just don’t.”

Mr Abbott said he understood the pressure many families faced to break into the housing market.

He believed the best way to help them realise the “Australian dream” of owning their own home was to ensure Australia had a strong and growing economy.

“The best way to make housing more affordable is to have a strong economy, where real wages are growing and the best way to bring that about is to bring taxes down, regulation down, and to have a competent and trustworthy government,” he said.

“I’m not going to pretend that I can wave a magic wand and put an extra $20,000 in the pocket of every would-be homebuyer, but people aren’t silly.

“They know any government that comes to them promising magic answers is fooling them.”

While Federal Labor waits for Colin Barnett to sign WA up to its Gonski reforms, Mr Abbott claimed no school in Brand would be worse off under his charge.

He said he was not about to “ram change down people’s throats”.

“We want to continue the existing (education) system,” he said.

“We don’t think there’s anything much wrong with it.

“We want to continue the existing system until such time we are confident any such change is: a, an improvement; and b, affordable.”

There are things he will change, and they include scrapping the carbon tax, the mining tax and stopping the boats.

Asked what he thought about local charity groups struggling to meet the demands of people — including asylum seekers on bridging visas living in Rockingham — his response was simple.

“If you stop the boats, you don’t have the problem,” he said.

“We’ve got to stop the boats.”

One thing he does not plan to stop though is his visits to Brand, with Mr Abbott hopeful his next visit would be to meet with Ms Gordin as a member of a Liberal-led government.

“If Donna gets elected then obviously there would be a change in government,” he said.

“I think I’ve been here five times in the last three years, so why not keep it on the agenda?”

While he started the interview by saying he would not criticise Ms Gordin’s opponent, Mr Abbott had comments about Labor and Brand MHR Gary Gray when asked why people should vote Liberal.

“Gary Gray is in a very difficult position, because just 10 days ago he said Kevin Rudd doesn’t have what it takes to be Prime Minister and now of course, he’s serving... in Kevin Rudd’s Government,” he said.

“If Gary was able to be honest, he would say, ‘look this guy is chaotic, he’s dysfunctional, he’s impossible’ and yet that’s the person they want us to re-elect.”

Tell us what you think. Email editor@soundtelegraph.com.au or send us a letter.