“Kevin Rudd has splurged close to $3.4 million on overseas travel since coming to power.” — Herald Sun, February 2009
“The man who made the biggest promises about the environment during last year’s federal election has become the man with the biggest carbon footprint in Australia.” — The Sydney Morning Herald, December 2008
Remember the Kevin 747 jokes? They were the Australian media’s favourite gag in 2008, as Kevin Rudd jetted around the world urging our trade partners to act on the global financial crisis.
Despite Rudd’s reputation, however, Tony Abbott hasn’t been any less of a jet-setting PM — in fact, he’s in China for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit right now, his 12th trip in the past year. But as the SMH‘s Peter Hartcher rightly observes in his new essay The Adolescent Country, Abbott hasn’t had to answer the same questions about his travel. In fact, foreign policy has become an area of strength for the Abbott government, despite its early antagonism towards Indonesia and, more recently, certain comments about “shirt-fronting” Vladimir Putin.
Instead of headlines like “Kevin 07 has become Departure Gate 08” (The Daily Telegraph), Abbott has been treated with “Globetrotting Tony Abbott proves his worth on world stage” (The Australian).
Hartcher argues that Australian politics has traditionally prioritised the local over the global — even when international concerns are far more important to Australia’s interests. But Abbott’s world dealings have been received very differently — with a focus on the outcomes and relationships built by his visits rather than a zero-sum mentality where every day abroad is another day not spent on Australian interests. This is a good sign. Perhaps, as Bernard Keane wrote last week, the Australian press merely takes longer to turn on conservative prime ministers. Or maybe Australia is finally growing up.
Tony Abbott being overseas more frequently isn’t a zero-sum game. It means that he’s not here in Australia st*ffimg things up. And foreigners he meets come to realise he’s a joke and not to be taken seriously.
A positive-sum game as far as I can see.
You give far too much credence to the motives of the Murdoch press. Pure hypocrisy is the name of the game. If a conservative leader is doing it it’s an honourable thing, if it’s Labor then it’s the opposite, a drain on the taxpayer something to slam them over the head with, mock with juvenile slogans etc.
Seriously, if Shorten were PM you think there’s a possibility that the likes of Murdoch’s conservative PR Limited News would be as supportive of his “flights of fantasy”?
[And the more Toady and The Credlin are overseas, the fewer questions they have to face from the mavericks of the non-conservative, non-Murdoch Limited News putsch, that the likes of Murdoch, Stokes and Singo (with his Cock-or-Two circus) can’t edit.]
Rudd wasn’t the first Labor PM to be criticised for overseas travel. One of Malcolm Fraser’s promises in 1975 was that we would not have a tourist for prime minister. Yes Gough was criticised roundly for his travel.
Bob Menzies spent long periods in England nearly every year, having travelled by ocean liner, adding two months to his absence. This was especially so in years when the Australian cricket team was touring. The conservative press did not see anything wrong with this at the time. No doubt parliament was in its winter recess while he was away.
Well, all of Abbott’s media backers are hardly going to criticise Captain Australia when he’s out of the country, as I’m sure that they’ve worked out that he’s more popular when he isn’t around. And if he does offend anyone, well, it’s only likely to be foreigners.
Sorry, don’t know why I put ‘if’ in that last sentence.