The Prime Minister has moved to reset his political agenda after Liberal figures blamed him and the federal coalition for the state Liberal government’s disastrous loss to Labor in the weekend’s Victorian election.
He has abandoned plans to remove some allowances from the Australian Defence Force – though retained the 1.5% pay offer – and agreed to amend the Government’s plans to push up university fees so the interest students pay is in line with inflation, not higher.
On the fifth anniversary of his election as Liberal leader, Tony Abbott announced he had dumped plans to remove a clutch of allowances from the Australian Defence Force.
But the pay offer of 1.5 per cent, remains.
The moves came as former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett blamed the Federal Government’s unpopular Budget – and the Prime Minister – for the Victorian result.
The Prime Minister announced the partial back-down in a marathon news conference in which he acknowledged that the Government had suffered a bad political week.
“I’d be the first to admit that last week was a bit of a ragged week for the Government,” Mr Abbott said.
In a separate back-down, the Education Minister announced he will accept proposed amendments to the controversial proposed higher education changes, including one from Family First Senator Bob Day that the interest rate students face on their fees through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) should be in line with inflation and not higher.
Mr Abbott defended plans to introduce a Medicare co-payment on visits to the doctor. Asked why his office was briefing privately last week that the co-payment had been shelved, he said he was not aware of all private conversations his staff had with journalists.
“I stand by my office,” he said. “It’s a very good office.”
And he softened his language on the promise he made the night before last year’s federal election in an interview with SBS Television.
Mr Abbott said during the interview on September 6 last year that there would be “no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to the pension, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS”.
After initially declining to acknowledge the promise, he conceded last week that he had indeed made the statement. Today he went further.
“I accept that we are doing with the ABC is at odds with what I said prior to the election,” he said.
He is declining to change his position on his proposed paid parental leave scheme – but is not ruling out adjusting it in future.
“Do you think if I were to change the paid parental leave scheme that there wouldn’t be screams of ‘broken promise’?”
But he left room for changes in discussions with the crossbench.
“What tweaks might possibly occur will depend very much on the course of discussions with the Senate, early in the New Year.”
Mr Abbott has also spoken this morning to the new Premier-Elect of Victoria, Labor’s Daniel Andrews, in the wake of his weekend victory in the Victorian state election which saw a one-term Liberal government thrown out. Flagging the upcoming release of a white paper on taxation, he said it would be better if all states including Victoria could pay for their own health and education systems.
“The election of a Labor Premier in Victoria doesn’t change the fundamental problem that needed to be addressed,” he said.
