Tony Abbott admits he is still ‘wounded’ and ‘scarred’ two years after being dumped as Prime Minister by his closest colleagues.
The 59-year-old was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull on September 15, 2015, after 30 bad polls caused even staunch allies like Julie Bishop to turn against him.
But although he blames his ‘self-interested’ fellow MPs for stabbing him in the back, he concedes some of his own odd behaviour helped bring him down.
Tony Abbott admits he is still ‘wounded’ and ‘scarred’ two years after being dumped as Prime Minister by his closest colleagues (pictured announcing his defeat)
But although he blames his fellow MPs for stabbing him in the back, he concedes some of his own odd behaviour, like eating a raw onion on TV, helped bring him down
‘I probably shouldn’t have winked at Neil Mitchell. I probably shouldn’t have eaten an onion. I probably should have had walk coaching,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
These spectacular gaffes became national news stories that dealt serious blows to his credibility and popularity with voters, and forever affected his image.
‘The important thing is to learn as you go through life. We often learn more from our failures than we do from our successes because I suppose failing is searing whereas success we just assume,’ he said.
Despite these failings, Mr Abbott insisted he has ‘not the slightest doubt’ have won last year’s Federal Election more comfortably than Mr Turnbull did.
He confessed winking during a radio interview with Neil Mitchell when a sex worker called in was probably also a bad move
Mr Abbott chomped on more than one onion during his time as Prime Minister
Mr Abbott also said he probably should hired a walking coach to help his much-mocked gaint
He also defended his Prime Ministerial record of scrapping the carbon tax, stopping asylum seeker boat arrivals, cutting power prices, and passing three trade deals.
Mr Abbott felt he could have done more if the Senate hadn’t ‘sabotaged’ the deep spending cuts in his widely unpopular 2014 budget.
Among his failures he counts scrapping the debt ceiling and angering colleagues by cracking down on politician entitlements – but the biggest of all was failing to ‘manage’ Mr Turnbull.
‘To lose the leadership two years after a thumping electoral victory obviously indicates a failure of sorts, even if it’s only a failure to manage a colleague,’ he said.
Mr Abbott with his family on the night of his election victory in 2013
Mr Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull hours after a leadership challenge was declared
Mr Turnbull is sworn in as Prime Minister on September 15, 2015, after toppling Mr Abbott
Being dumped as PM ‘still hurts’, he said, and although he is exiled to the backbench Mr Abbott said his political career was ‘not over’ and he couldn’t complain about being a minister for 11 years and leading the Liberal Party for 11.
‘Lots of people are wounded by things in the course of life. Almost everyone has wounds. And the last thing I should ever do is feel sorry for myself. I’ve had a magic carpet ride through life,’ he said.
He was not letting the betrayal prevent him from trusting people again either, saying his colleagues acted out of self-interest, which everyone in politics does.
Instead he remained resolved to give people ‘the benefit of the doubt’ because you are more like to get the best of them than if you expect the worst.
Being dumped as PM ‘still hurts’, he said, and although he is exiled to the backbench Mr Abbott said his political career was ‘not over’