The new prime minister of Australia (elected 7 September) looks to be good news for the pet passions of that country’s right wing – climate change denial, an end to political ‘correctness’, restrictions on access to abortion and stopping the supposed ‘flood’ of asylum seekers. These are just some of the emotive issues that carried the British-born and Jesuit-trained Abbott to power over the bickering Centre-Left Australian Labor Party.
Abbott, leader of the Centre-Right Liberal Party, previously came to international attention when he was so effectively pilloried for his barrage of sexist comments, in a speech given by the former Labor leader Julia Gillard, that her riposte went viral on YouTube as an example of a woman standing up against sexism.
But by the time the 2013 election rolled around Gillard was long gone and Australian voters were distracted by a blitz of xenophobia and Abbott’s decisive ‘manliness’ in promising to ‘stop the boats’ of vulnerable refugees. He even reinforced the message with several Putinesque bare-chested photo ops to underline his sex appeal. In reality, Australia ranks only 32nd among countries that accept refugees and has one of the most punitive asylum regimes in the world involving notorious offshore detention camps.
Abbott joins Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the frontline of an international conservative effort to undermine any significant attempt to reduce climate degradation. It remains to be seen if green Australians will have more success than Canadians in standing against Abbott’s attack on carbon taxation and his other environment-bashing agendas.
