Seven years ago today, in the leadup to the G20 meeting in
Brisbane, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, said that he would
shirtfront Russian President Vladimir Putin over the murder of 298 people,
including several dozen Australians, in the skies over Ukraine. While
Australians are quite familiar with the former PM, I will give a brief
explanation for overseas readers.
There is nothing moderate about Tony Abbott. Not now, and
not when he was in Parliament. An unrepentant, abrasive conservative Catholic,
he said what he thought, wore his heart on his sleeve, and made such an
effective opposition leaver that he won the election in 2013. Just as abrasive
in government as he was on the cross benches, he eventually wore his own party
out, and got replaced with a technocrat who could actually govern after a few
years in the top job.
However, he was still in power in July 2014, when the
Russian shot down the Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner MH17 as it was flying over
the Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. As Malaysia was then a popular
stopover point for travel between Australia and Europe, there were 27
Australians on board, and it was the worst overseas attach on Australian
civilians since the 2002 terrorist bombings in Indonesia killed 88 Australians.
In the leadup to the G20 meeting, Prime Minister Abbott said
in a media interview that he intended to “shirtfront” the Russian President
Vladimir Putin over the MH17 murders. This raised more than a few eyebrows, not
only because of the lack of diplomatic tact, but also for the use of a 1970’s
era term for tacking used in AFL football, a sport mostly played in Southern
and Western Australia, and not on the East Coast, where both the meeting and
Abbott’s home electorate are located. However, following the suspension of
Russia from the G8 earlier in the year, it was considered a potential
flashpoint.
Seven years on, it is fair to look at where things now
stand. Putin is still President of Russia. Tony Abbott is no longer in
politics. After being replaced as Prime Minister in 2015, he retreated to the
back bench, and eventually lost re-election to independent Zali Steggall in
2019. However, it’s not just about him.
All over the English-speaking world, conservative political
parties have moved away from straight-talking ideological politicians like Mr
Abbott and towards those more like the truth-bending, ideologically flexible,
power abusing Mr Putin.
This is of course most obvious in the USA, where strongman
apologist Donald Trump took over the Republican Party when he became President,
and has been guiding it in a pro-Russian, anti-democratic direction ever since.
To a lesser extent it is true in the UK, where Boris Johnson, the creative-tongued,
ideologically nebulous anti-European populist is now Prime Minister.
Even here in Australia, where the technocratic Prime
Minister who replaced Abbott was himself replaced, straight talking and
ideological coherence seems to be out of fashion. While the current Prime
Minister is also conservative, straight talking, above board conduct, and
consistency aren’t really hallmarks of the current administration.
So all-in-all, the shirtfront seems to come up short. Not
only is Mr Putin still in power, but he has ensured that Mr Abbott’s brand of
politics doesn’t even have a place in the English-speaking world anymore.