Tony Abbott admits: we could have done some things better

TONY Abbott has acknowledged he and his party could have some things better in their first year in power.

But speaking at a Father’s Day community tea in northern Sydney he was attending with his 90-year-old father Dick, the Prime Minister defended his party’s performance after one year in office and said overall he “looked back at the last 12 months with some satisfaction”.

“With the wisdom of 20-20 hindsight there are always somethings (we could have done differently), but we’ve faced some difficult challenges and I think we’ve handled them pretty well,” Mr Abbott, who had just returned after a three-day trip to India and Malaysia, said.

“We have faced some tough challenges, we’ve faced them squarely and honestly and we’ve done the best we can sometime under difficult circumstance.”

The prime minister said his government was still working “as hard as we humanely can”.

“We stopped the boats, we’ve scrapped the carbon tax, we’ve scrapped the mining tax, we’re building the roads, we’re getting the budget back under control.”

Mr Abbott dismissed earlier comments by former former Howard government minister Peter Reith that the Coalition should have been more honest about its plans for budget cuts before the election.

“Some of the unsustainable promises, the blank cheque promise the Labor party made are not going to be honoured by this government – . we were very up front about that before the election,” he said.

“We said up front again and again and again before the election that we were going to get the budget under control and we went into the election being very up front with people that the school kids bonus was going, the low income bonus was going the superannuation bonus was going,” he said.

“We said all of this up front before the election and we have delivered on it.

“It would be nice if there was an easy way to fix Labor’s debt and deficit disaste. Unfortunately it is a difficult job … but if you don’t take the tough decisions to day they’re going to be even tougher decisions tomorrow, that’s the last thing any responsible government would do.”

But the prime minister says the Coalition has done its best under sometimes difficult circumstances.

Mr Abbott arrived back in Australia today after a three-day trip to India and Malaysia, in time to celebrate Father’s Day and the one-year anniversary of his election to the country’s top job. He trumpeted the scrapping of the carbon and mining taxes, stopping the boats and getting the budget under control.

But he admitted not everything had been smooth sailing.

“With the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight there are always some things (we could have done better),” Mr Abbott told reporters.

“We’ve faced some difficult challenges and I think we’ve handled them pretty well.”

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said, however, that Australians have the right to be disappointed about what the Abbott government has served up in its first year.

Mr Shorten says there is a sense of anxiety in the community about what the Abbott government has done in the year since it won office.

“When Tony Abbott was elected it was on the basis that things would get better,” he said.

“Ever since then we’ve seen nasty surprises and pathetic excuses.”

Domestically, the government is up for some tough negotiations with crossbench senators to push through its budget measures. Several measures — including a $7 GP copayment, deregulation of university fees and welfare cuts — face defeat in the upper house with strong opposition from Labor, the Greens and the crossbench. But overseas events have overshadowed the prime minister’s domestic agenda in his first year.

In a video address to mark the anniversary, Mr Abbott said the rise of extremism in Syria and Iraq and the downing of MH17 in eastern Ukraine had tested Australians like never before.

“As a nation, we’ve also faced serious challenges in the past year because of the increasingly uncertain world in which we live,” he said.

“In an increasingly uncertain world, we are determined that our nation will be secure.”

Mr Abbott has promised to spend an additional $630 million on counterterrorism measures to combat the threat of Australians returning home after fighting alongside terrorists on battlefields in the Middle East.

source: theaustralian.com.au