Australia’s Conservative PM Abbott must fight for his job

CONSERVATIVE Prime Minister Tony Abbott swept to power promising to bring stability to Australia, but now faces being dumped after alienating voters and his own party with a high-handed manner and policy backflips.

The former trainee Catholic priest, boxing enthusiast and die-hard monarchist, ditched his “Mad Monk” tag and softened his macho image to win office with a comfortable majority in September 2013.

But after less than 18 months in power, he has delivered an unpopular budget, made a U-turn on several major policies and alienated backbenchers with decisions seen as tin-eared.

With polls plunging, the 57-year-old gave the final impetus for the revolt when he awarded Britain’s Prince Philip a knighthood on Australia Day, unleashing a wave of ridicule and astonishment.

“The knighthood issue was for many the final proof of disconnection with the people,” said Liberal MP Luke Simpkins in his letter to his party colleagues urging a leadership vote.

Anthony John Abbott was born in London in 1957. He grew up in Australia, attending the University of Sydney before taking up a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University.

He briefly trained as a Catholic priest before becoming a journalist and then pursuing a career in politics, entering parliament in 1994 and rising to health minister in John Howard’s government.

Although he had wanted to be prime minister for much of his life, Abbott was not the first choice to lead the Liberals in opposition after Howard was ousted in 2007.

He only won the Liberal leadership in December 2009 by a single vote, and reportedly to a “gobsmacked silence” in Canberra, after a bitter internal debate over climate change.

As opposition leader, Abbott was relentless in attack — first when Labor dumped sitting prime minister Kevin Rudd for Julia Gillard in 2010, and then helping to push Gillard to such opinion polls lows that Labor reinstalled Rudd in 2013, just weeks ahead of an election the Liberal leader won.

Abbott had previously been known as a political hard man of the Liberal Party, unafraid to speak his mind and occasionally tripping up with a gaffe.

His straight-talking landed him in hot water, particularly when he labelled the science behind climate change “absolute crap” and threatened to “shirtfront” Russian leader Vladimir Putin after the downing of flight MH17 in Ukraine with 38 Australians onboard.

But the veteran politician, labelled sexist by Gillard in a fierce parliamentary tirade against misogyny, rebuilt his image ahead of the 2013 election.

He appeared regularly with his wife and three adult daughters, spoke of his closeness to his gay sister and even admitted to being a fan of the British period drama “Downton Abbey”.

A former boxer for Oxford University, Abbott keeps up his sport as a volunteer firefighter during the hazardous bushfire season and a surf life saver near his northern Sydney home.

He is often seen in lycra bike shorts and tiny swimming shorts known as “budgie smugglers”.

Asked to describe himself on Friday, Abbott said he had “always been a bit reluctant to blow my own trumpet”.

“I’m the father of three daughters, I’m the brother of three sisters, I love my community, which I try to serve as a volunteer firefighter and as a surf lifesaver,” he told commercial radio.

“Obviously, I like sport and try to get plenty of physical exercise because I think that’s good for your mental health as well as everything else.

“But most of all, I am the prime minister of our country and I am spending every ounce of energy, I am dedicating every fibre of my being, to try to ensure that this country flourishes.”