The former prime minister has delivered the annual Margaret Thatcher Oration in London to an audience of po litical conservatives.
Tony Abbott has offered some advice to his former European counterparts on the mass migration crisis they're currently facing.
He's pointed to his own efforts in Australia as a gold standard in preventing what he calls illegal migration.
"Now while Prime Minister I was loath to give public advice to other countries whose situation is different. But because people smuggling is a global problem, and because Australia is the only country that has successfully defeated it - twice, under conservative governments - our experience should be studied."
He warned that mass migration could change Europe forever and says any asylum seeker who passes through an acceptable safe haven should be considered an economic, rather than a humanitarian, migrant.
"It will require some force; it will require massive logistics and expense; it will gnaw at our consciences yet it is the only way to prevent a tide of humanity surging through Europe and quite possibly changing it forever."
The flow of refugees continues from Iraq and Syria.
Since the outbreak of the civil war more than 9 million people have been displaced in Syria alone, and thousands continue to flee to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
The Greek Government has received financial support from the European Union to finance temporary camps to hold 20,000 migrants, in the north and south of the country.
In his speech, Tony Abbott urged Europe to stop the flow of people.
"This means turning boats around for people coming by sea. It means denying entrance at the border for people with no legal right to come. And it means establishing camps for people who currently have nowhere to go."
Malcolm Turnbull has been in In Adelaide, on his first visit as Prime Minister.
He's refused to respond to Tony Abbott's speech.
"Tony has given a speech. I will leave it to others to make the commentary but he's obviously had a remarkable career in public life, including two years as prime minister, and we owe him a great debt for that and his views are in hot demand everywhere in the world."
Labor, however, was happy to respond.
The Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the Eurpean refugee crisis and Australia's border security are different issues.
"Well Tony Abbott has flown to Europe to lecture Angela Merkel, the head of the German government, to lecture Francois Hollande in France, to lecture David Cameron in England about what to do with this issue, I am not sure that European leaders grappling with a scale and a dimension of a problem which we don't have in Australia are necessarily going to benefit by Tony Abbott's advice."
Leader of the Greens, Richard Di Natale, was more direct.
"The only catastrophic error Europe has made is giving Tony Abbott a platform to speak. That's their error: to give a failed Prime Minister a platform to espouse his hateful and insular views of the world."
The migration crisis wasn't the only subject Tony Abbott addressed in his London speech.
He also urged the use of troops on the ground in Syria to resolve the march of I-S.
"We've helped to contain its advance in Iraq but we haven't defeated it because it can't be defeated without more effective local forces on the ground."
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