It was a momentous Monday Night in Canberra, Australia, one that had PM Tony Abbott's pal, Rupert Murdoch tweeting:
Sad to see such a decent man as Abbott toppled. Now Turnbull needs a November election before Labor sacks Shorten.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 14, 2015
He called Abbott a decent man, and he was far from that. This is a man whom Australians compare to GW Bush. In Australia, the Liberal Party is sort of like the Republicans, but the GOP of early Reagan days, but not Eisenhower Republicans. Abbott was a right wing maniac, as far as his constituents were concerned. He was the 2nd shortest reigning PM in Australian History, only Harold Holt who drowned in his second year in office served less time.
Abbott, about as popular as athlete's foot in Australia, had many, many missteps. Opponents comprised a list of 478 promises that were broken or acts that went against society, the environment, healthcare and education funding. Sounds a lot like the U.S. GOP. Here are just two:
209. Breaks a promise to have one million more solar roofs across Australia and at least 25 solar towns – 13 May 2014
208. Breaks a promise to spend $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund by committing less than half this amount in the budget – 13 May 2014
Malcolm Turnbull was once considered too conservative, but compared with Abbott, Australia views Mr.Turnbull as a much saner choice. Turnbull isn't Liberal like Democratic U.S. liberal, he's more center right. Think of Turnbull as Ronald Reagan and Abbott as Ted Cruz. Abbott barely won the federal election, in 2013, narrowly defeating Labour Party Leader, Kevin Rudd. He won the leadership of the Liberal Party by a vote of 54-44.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
He promised to run a more consultative style of government and said the Australian prime minister should be the "first amongst equals" and not treated like a President.
"The culture of our government is going to be one that is thoroughly consultative … a thoroughly traditional consultative cabinet government that ensures we make decisions in a collaborative manner," he said
PM Turnbull stated that Abbott could no longer lead the Australian economy effectively and promised to make the government more collaborative. In 2008, Turnbull's popularity in the conservative Liberal Party waned when he admitted to smoking Marijuana:
He went on to explain that he had smoked marijuana in his much younger days and now thought that it was a very bad idea because the drug could be damaging.
This is a small step in fixing the damage done by the ultra-right, Catholic, anti-science PM, Tony Abbott. It was a happy day for Australians, but their work is far from finished to restore a government of the people, not of big corporations.
