Book shows Abbott as 'dangerous' man

Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer, AAP October 1, 2011, 12:02 am

Tony Abbott is the most "dangerous" man to ever seek the office of prime minister, and would impose a narrow conservative Catholic agenda on the country if elected, a contentious new book claims.
Academic Susan Mitchell's book, Tony Abbott: A Man's Man, is only the second attempt - after Michael Duffy's 2004 work, Latham and Abbott - to probe in any depth what makes the Liberal leader tick.
Mitchell is unashamed to say the book is a polemic, rather than a biography, but argues that her case is backed up by a wealth of material, including media reports, speeches and insights from Abbott's 2009 manifesto, Battlelines.
The author, who's published 14 books including a 2007 biography of Margaret Whitlam, makes her motive for writing the book clear.
"The fact that he came within a whisker of becoming prime minister in 2010 makes it even more important that we look behind the labels of the Mad Monk and Captain Catholic used by his critics, to understand what he really does believe and what motivates him in his ambition to lead Australia in the 21st century," she writes.
Asked whether she started the book with the aim of doing a hatchet job on Abbott, Mitchell told AAP: "No. I was alarmed that he got as close as he did (at the 2010 election).
"I thought to myself, `I'd better go back and have another look and work out whether these things are just my impression or whether there are facts to back it up.'"
Mitchell, who has known the Liberal leader for almost two decades, traces Abbott's life from his boyhood, into his training as a Catholic priest, right-wing student activism, work as a Liberal staffer and entry into parliament.
Her overall image of Abbott the man is one of being "pugnacious, aggressive and arrogant", wedded to the outdated values of his "male mentors" in his narrow Catholic upbringing.
"Julia (Gillard) is everything he despises," says Mitchell, listing the fact the prime minister is in a de facto relationship, childless, atheist and a feminist.
As for Abbott the political leader, he has turned politics into war, uses policy mantras starting with the words "stop" or "kill", and routinely approaches everything he does "in a manner that only serves to make voters feel fearful for the future", Mitchell says.
But at the same time "his policies are subject to constant slipping and sliding, according to the politics of the situation; he blows where the political wind takes him", she argues.
Finding anything positive about Abbott in the book is difficult.
Mitchell says Abbott is "not a bad man or a mad man".
But she concludes voters need to think seriously about whether they want a leader who is "trapped in the past".
Unfortunately, one downfall of the book is the fact that the author did not interview Mr Abbott.
"Susan Mitchell has made no contact with Tony or his office in the preparation of her book," a spokesman for Mr Abbott told AAP on Friday.
"She has not sought to interview Tony as part of her research."
Abbott's office also declined to comment on the content of the book, having not seen an advance copy.
Mitchell said she didn't see a need to talk to the man in question.
"I'm arguing a case about him that is backed up by the material that is available," she told AAP.
"He's flown below the radar. No one has actually called him on a lot of these things.
"And I don't want people to get landed with this person and say `I didn't know all of this'."

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Friday, 30 September 2011