abbott according to latham

In his article in the AFR online [URL below] Mark Latham has drawn on his experience as a former Opposition Leader to assess Tony Abbott's recent interaction with Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:

"... My theory on Abbott is that he is a habitual exaggerator, an attention seeker who will say or do anything to inflate the perceived sins of his opponents. ..."

"... So too, for domestic political gain, he has exaggerated his commitment to towing boats back to Indonesia. If he is not willing to raise the issue directly with the Indonesian President, it is unlikely he will do anything about it in government. As with most matters Abbott, his rhetorical flourishes have been just for show.

This failure of leadership has raised other, character-related difficulties for the Liberal leader. The Indonesians, having stared down Abbott on his biggest policy initiative, would have walked away from the meeting questioning his strength and integrity.

If a Coalition government ever decided to turn around an asylum seeker boat, Yudhoyono would have every right to say to Abbott: “You failed to raise this with me during two meetings in opposition; I’m not co-operating with something you didn’t think was important enough to talk about face-to-face.” ..."

So there it is; straight from the horse's mouth [so to speak]. Abbott demonstrated weakness and a lack of integrity in his meeting with SBY that will come back to haunt him and to reduce his effectiveness if ever he becomes PM.

Abbott's slogan of 'Towing boats back to Indonesia'; is discredited and dead in the water - unless you are still gullible enough to think otherwise!

http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/abbott_tow_back_sham_oDBjh89BD6x71KhdXrNrLL