Abbott's Right: The conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbott

By: Damien Freeman

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Synopsis: Tony Abbott may have been a Rhodes Scholar, but some commentators are convinced that he offered nothing more than three-word slogans. Abbott's Right challenges this perception, and presents Abbott as someone who rejoices in the political battle of ideas. It looks at how the contemporary conservative voice that Abbott champions was fashioned by Sir Robert Menzies, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard, and reflects on what it means to be conservative in modern Australia. It argues that the Liberal Party should return to its conservative roots as a centre-right party and signals how, as such, it might address the public policy challenges in the years ahead. Tony Abbott responds to Freeman's analysis in an afterword, and sets it in the context of the questions that Donald Trump's ascendancy poses for conservatives and Labor alike.