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September 28th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
“I want to work within the current Act” … Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Photo: Andrew Meares
TONY ABBOTT is digging in against rising internal and external pressure to take a tougher line on industrial relations, saying he will always be guided by pragmatism, not ideology, as he was when last in government.
The Opposition Leader hit back yesterday at criticism by the former treasurer and cabinet colleague Peter Costello of his declaration last week that he would not reintroduce individual workplace agreements if elected.
This angered business groups and many Liberals who want a return to pre-WorkChoices individual agreements which were underpinned by a no-disadvantage test. No one is advocating the WorkChoices version which stripped away the no-disadvantage test.
But Mr Abbott reiterated there would be no return to any individual statutory agreements and his policy was to increase the flexibility of the agreements in Labor’s Fair Work Act.
”I want to work within the current Act, individual flexible agreements promised so much but delivered so little,” he said.
Mr Abbott, who opposed WorkChoices as a cabinet minster, has angered sections of the Liberal establishment with his stance.
Mr Costello said Mr Abbott could not afford to rule out polices that he will need to help restore a bad debt and fiscal position he will inherit. He likened Mr Abbott’s approach to that of the Democratic Labor Party, the breakaway of conservative Labor Catholics in the 1950s.
Mr Abbott, a Catholic, was close to the DLP founder B A Santamaria as a young man.
Mr Costello said Mr Abbott had a duty to uphold Liberal values of workplace freedom and flexibility.
The Nationals Senator, Barnaby Joyce, a Catholic, was also targeted by Mr Costello as a protectionist. Senator Joyce said: ”I haven’t been to one sermon yet where they’ve talked to me about free trade or otherwise.”
Senator Joyce said just because Mr Abbott once knew Mr Santamaria did not make him DLP.
”I worked … in a soup kitchen in Kings Cross, I don’t intend to become a prostitute,” he said.
Mr Abbott said that if re-elected, he would behave in government as he did when a cabinet minister under John Howard.
”I’ve had a very clear line on this for years – I’ve never been doctrinaire, I’ve always been about practical problem-solving, that is what the next coalition government will do,” Mr Abbott said.
”I’m not interested in text books, I’m not interested in abstract theory.”
One Liberal MP scoffed there was nothing pragmatic about Mr Abbott as health minister trying to stop the abortion drug, RU-486.
But one senior Liberal said Mr Abbott’s stance might be angering sections of the Liberal party but would do no harm electorally.
”Every day he gets attacked by hardline Liberals, it makes it harder for Labor to label him an extremist,”’ he said.
The former industrial relations minister Peter Reith has led the pressure campaign against Mr Abbott. Yesterday, the ACTU announced a campaign to stop the spread of casual and contract work which was feeding job insecurity and Mr Reith said the Liberals should be opposing this.
”Given that the Liberal Party supports this basic idea of freedom at work, it will be interesting to see if the federal Coalition can bring itself to comment on the ACTU’s proposal or are Liberal MPs too busy re-reading Peter Costello’s article,” he said.
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