Prime Minister yesterday, today on the backbench: political life is only just beginning.

By Gary Scarrabelotti

No, I’m not going to tell you about how, at this modest seaside town in Ukraine, the endless steppe lands sweep down to the motionless waters of the Black Sea.

Nor will I advert to the dust that seeps into everything, the broken footpaths, the crumbling housing blocks or the rustic domestic gardens. 

Definitely, I will not shock you by noting the statue of Lenin in the town center supplied with an ‘perpetual’ bouquet of red plastic flowers. 

And it would be just too dull of me to list the Soviet-era street names: Sovetskaya; Proletskarska; Kommunarov; and others.

Not even the praises will I sing of the jewel of this place: the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church in honour of a great saint. 

Especially will I refrain from making jokes about my utter dimness when it comes to the Russian language: only visitors from Lviv speak Ukrainian here.

And, for fear of playing on well worn themes, I won’t try to amuse you with how I have been mistaken for a black market money trader, by now, on two occasions. 

No, I am here about my old friend, Tony Abbott, in the wake of his defeat, as Prime Minister of Australia, at the hands of his own party.  

Harvest time

To tell the truth, I have seen this sad dénouement coming for near eighteen months now — though, in the meantime, there have been moments when I thought I spied some thin shaft of hope that it would not end this way.  My first perceptions were right; the subsequent hopes misplaced. 

It is not my job to stick the boot into “Abbo” here and give him the megaphone treatment about where he went wrong. I am not a paid journalist. I do not have an editor to command me to write. So I won’t, at least not along those lines. Enough has been said by Abbott supporters in the media, let alone by his inveterate enemies. In any case, in broad terms, he understands my views. 

What moves my pen, however, are news stories – like this, for example — which suggest that Abbott’s political career is over and that his only job now will be to think about his post-parliamentary options. 

Absurd. 

It would be rash (even unseemly) of Abbott to do anything at all right now except to stay in Parliament. For that matter, the time between now and the next election is little enough in which to make a mature determination about his future: unless some blaze of light should shine or some hidden door suddenly open. 

Such things do happen. They are not in the ordinary way of things, however. Prudence would say decide nothing now.  This is the time for reading, recollection and meditation: for gathering in to a backbench seat the bitter harvest of experience. 

Greats 

In any case, Abbott’s defeat, while it feels devastating to him now, has not been so great. There were only five votes in it. More than enough to end a Prime Ministership, but not enough, by itself, to call an end to political life.  Forty-four votes look more like a foundation to me. 

Abbott is still a young man, politically speaking. He is only in his 58^th year. His great hero, Churchill, was 65 when he became Prime Minister of Great Britain in May 1940. Robert Gordon Menzies was a youngish 55 when he became Australia’s Prime Minister for the second time in December 1949. And John Winston Howard, Abbott’s mentor, was 56 when he became Prime Minister in 1996. 

Churchill ended his second stint as Prime Minister in 1955 when he resigned at age 80. Menzies retired as Prime Minister, after 16 years in office, in 1966 at age 71. Howard served as Prime Minister for 11 years until 2007; he was 68 when he lost an election and his seat in parliament. 

One of my personal political heroes – who I don’t believe Abbott could warm to – was Charles de Gaulle.  He was in the political wilderness from 1944 to 1958. Then in ’58, at age 66, he founded the French Fifth Republic and ruled as president until 1969 when he was 78. 

Another is the remarkable Konrad Adenauer. He became Chancellor of Germany in 1949 at age 73 and stayed at the post until age 87 when, in 1963, he stepped down.

So really “Abbo” is just a lad among some of the great democratically elected leaders of our era.  There is much yet for him to learn and to accomplish.  He need not worry about his ‘real life’ having come to an end. It could very well just be beginning.

Interesting times

Australian political life has become fragile, uncertain, and crisis prone. My hunch is that there will be opportunities ahead, as future governments break down, and as political leaders crack up under the weight of our common flawed humanity, the empty promises of our ideologies, and the deluge of events.

One day, maybe not so far away, Australia will need a leader of determination, courage and wisdom. Abbott has the determination and the courage. May he now set about the getting of wisdom.