Why Tony Abbott Will Need More Than A Makeover

Today's Liberal leader Tony Abbott is against abortion, same-sex marriage, binge drinking and no-fault divorce. He does, however, believe that paedophiles who have done their time should be allowed to live wherever they want. And he thinks it's funny that he has been accused of flirting with the Deputy PM.

Not surprisingly, today's female twitterverse revolted. With the exception of Fairfax columnist Miranda Devine, who wears her Liberal Party supporter badge on her sleeve, her forehead and as a watermark behind her columns, most female tweeters were outraged that a man with Abbott's beliefs could possibly head up a major political party in Australia in 2009.

Abbott made a point of apologising for any behaviour of the past during his first press conference today. Deputy Julie Bishop stood nervously by his side and lacked any credibility when she took to the microphone to talk up her new leader as "a character". She couldn't say that Abbott has any respect for women, so she didn't.

In case you needed reminding of just what Abbott was apologising for, I've dug up a few examples that have helped to characterise him.

On AM on November 1, 2004, Abbott's views on abortion were exposed.

"TONY ABBOTT: Ah, well, I don't much like abortion full stop, but obviously abortions at a point in the pregnancy when the child to be might otherwise be viable, obviously raise even more serious ethical issues than those much earlier in pregnancy.

MATT BROWN: And is there any way that of those 75,000 abortions that your health system funds, that some of those could be discouraged?

TONY ABBOTT: Well as I said the Government policy hasn't changed, let's see where this debate develops."

In an article about binge drinking on August 13, 2009, the Herald Sun reported that "Mr Abbott said his 18-year-old daughter Frances called him a "lame, gay, churchie loser" the last time he offered her a worthy moral exhortation".

On September 17, The Australian reported: "it was left up to Liberal front bencher Tony Abbott to call for a more rational approach to the issue of where to house someone like Ferguson".

“Everyone has to live somewhere”, Abbot wrote. “The punishment should fit the crime but, once people have served their sentence, it’s generally been thought that they should be allowed to restart their lives with more-or-less a clean slate. Our culture has been profoundly influenced for the good by the injunctions not to judge “lest ye be judged”; and to “love your neighbour as you love yourself”. That is, it seems, until the neighbour happens to be a former pedophile.”

In The Age on July 13, 2009, there was a report on Tony Abbott's plea to strengthen the bedrock of marriage by reintroducing the option of a fault-based system for divorce.

"Although Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop said yesterday she was willing to entertain the idea - or at least debate it in the Coalition party room - experts suggest it could provide carte blanche for detectives to once more peer into the nation's bedrooms.

"Yes, really, there was a time - before no-fault divorce was introduced via the Family Law Act in 1975 - when figures in trench coats would scour bins for hotel receipts to produce evidence of adultery, and a spouse's "marital fault".

"This, in turn, could determine the size of a property settlement in court and even who got to keep the kids."

Abbott will certainly require a major makeover if he is to win over the crucial female vote. Without the 51% of the population who have been allowed to vote now for some time, he doesn't have a chance. No aspiring leader in recent times has understood this better than Kevin Rudd.