US think tank asks 'Is Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?'
A leading United States think tank has published a piece posing the question, "Is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?" and answering, quite comprehensively, in the affirmative.
Published on the Council on Foreign Relations website before Mr Abbott survived a spill motion on Monday, the piece argues that he has proven so "shockingly incompetent" that he deserved to lose his job.
"Abbott has proven so incapable of clear policy thinking, so unwilling to consult with even his own ministers and advisers, and so poor at communicating that he has to go," wrote the CFR senior fellow Joshua Kurlantzick, a US specialist in south-east Asian politics.
According to the think tank, Tony Abbott has "one of the worst senses of public relations of any prime minister in recent Australian history."
"Abbott's policies have been all over the map, and the lack of coherence has often made the prime minister seem ill-informed and incapable of understanding complex policy issues," he wrote.
"In press conferences, Abbott has offered mixed public messages about some of the health care reforms that were at the centre of his agenda, and sometimes has seemed unsure himself of what health legislation has actually been passed on his watch. He also has seemed unsure of what he promised in the past regarding Australia's major public broadcaster he promised not to touch it before he went ahead made cuts to it. He also looked completely baffled on climate change issues at the G20 summit in Australia last year."
Mr Kurlantzick argued that Mr Abbott's failure to consult with senior ministers about key issues had made it harder to pass critical legislation, and that Mr Abbott had what appeared to have "one of the worst senses of public relations of any prime minister in recent Australian history."
According to Mr Kurlantzick, Mr Abbott's "coarse rhetoric" had embarrassed Australia at major economic summits and that his decision to knight the "notoriously gaffe-prone and fusty Prince Philip" had gone down poorly even among his most conservative supporters.
"I take no position on whether a left or right coalition can govern Australia better whether Australia needs a revolt from within the ruling coalition or a national election victory by the left," he wrote in conclusion. "But a country that for decades has punched above its weight on nearly every international issue surely can do much better for a prime minister than Tony Abbott."
