In an event at the National Press Club by both Bob Hawke and John Howard, Howard made it quite clear (albeit a bit guarded) that he was very displeased with Abbott. In doing so he offered some valuable insights into Australian character, and why Abbott was in such deep shit now with the budget.
Some would say it's not too much of a smackdown, but after observing Howard for his 11 year prime ministership I'd say he's just about ripping Abbott a new asshole:
''One thing I've learnt about politics, and I'm sure Bob's experience would have been the same, Australians fundamentally don't like zealots, fanatics - they get very suspicious of fanatics,'' he said.
Both slogans and argument were important in politics, he added, observing ''we have sometimes lost the capacity to respect the ability of the Australian people to absorb a detailed argument''.
''They will respond to an argument for change and reform [but] they want two requirements. They want to be satisfied it's in the national interest, because they have a deep sense of nationalism and patriotism. They also want to be satisfied it's fundamentally fair.''
Mr Howard also reflected on ''the disease of factionalism'', saying while there was nothing wrong with people coalescing around common ideas, ''so many factions in political parties today are nothing more than preferment co-operatives''.
''The other trend that I think is regrettable, and I choose my words very carefully, and that is, that we have a growing number of people on both sides, all levels of politics, whose only life experience has been politics. ''Fundamentally, you end up with far too many people whose life's experience has only been about political combat.'' Read more
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