In comparison with the ditherer-in-chief, we have this: Tony Abbott speech warns on lack of power to reform. The article begins:

Tony Abbott has backed Scott Morrison’s warning about the number of Australian households that do not pay tax, in a major speech that steps up the case for budget and economic reform despite the challenges of the new parliament.

The former prime minister rebuked Labor for its “relentless negativity” and urged Malcolm Turnbull to fight for the Liberal Party’s core beliefs rather than giving up on spending cuts.

Mr Abbott defended his legacy, including his firm line on business welfare when Qantas sought a commonwealth guarantee, given the airline announced a bumper profit this week without the help of government aid.

He also warned of a lack of government power to enact reform, given that Julia Gillard’s administration was about to legislate 90 per cent of its bills with its alliance with the Greens but that this fell to 80 per cent in the next parliament when Labor and the Senate crossbench blocked the Abbott government’s plans.

“In other words, it was not the hung parliament that suffered from ‘relentless negativity’,” Mr Abbott said.

“This will also be a challenging parliament for reformers because every difficult change will have to run the gauntlet of political parties that pander to grievance.”

And his final word:

“Our challenge is not to move closer to Labor in the hope of being a smaller target,” he said.

“It’s to make the differences crystal clear so that voters can choose a party that puts its faith in empowered citizens rather than empowered officials.”

There are a few of us out here who might agree with this from the comments:

Tony Abbott is still the predominant voice in politics which speaks with the most clarity of purpose.

Now that voters have had a year of Turnbull, his waffling, meandering policy, his lost sense of purpose and his lack of performance … surely there is no one left who would still prefer Turnbull over a return to Abbott as the national leader.

Well, other than Niki Savva, there is probably no one left like that at all.