Lenore Taylor, political editor Monday 8 December 2014
Radio presenter accuses environment minister of lying, and says Abbott is in danger of losing his seat over the proposal to build an aged-care home in the PM’s electorate
Radio announcer Alan Jones has suggested Tony Abbott could lose his seat because of the public outcry over a local aged care redevelopment and has accused the environment minister, Greg Hunt, of listening to “Labor hacks” in approving it.
In an angry 30-minute interview on Sydney’s 2GB, Jones repeatedly chastised Hunt, accusing him of “telling lies to my listeners” and of accepting advice from Labor appointees on the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust about the proposal to build a privately owned, for-profit aged care home overlooking Sydney harbour at Middle Head.
“They are cheering and clapping their hands, they are saying ‘We’ve got Abbott on something else’ … [former prime minister Julia] Gillard appointed these people and they are laughing at you … they are rubbing their hands because Tony Abbott is in trouble with his own people and he may go the way John Howard went in Bennelong,” Jones said. (Howard lost the Sydney seat of Bennelong at the 2007 election).
“You will doom Tony Abbott if you start building an aged care facility there, I am telling you now,” he told Hunt, despite the fact that the prime minister holds the seat of Warringah by a very healthy 15.3% margin. “The prime minister is on the rack.”
In a six-minute, 30-second introduction to the interview, Jones said the Coalition was “on the nose” and this was not going to improve unless they started to listen.
“I am just telling them what the public will do if they don’t change … this is government completely out of control telling the people to get stuffed … and this is in Tony Abbott’s electorate and he has been hopelessly and dishonestly advised … the commonwealth consent authority was signed off by Greg Hunt, every aspect of this is a disgrace, and the minister Greg Hunt is on the line,” Jones said as he concluded his introductory monologue.
Hunt attempted to explain that his approval had been subject to the views of the rural fire service, and tried to give some history of the decision-making process, but was repeatedly interrupted by the broadcaster, who accused Hunt of lying and not knowing what he was talking about.
A Fairfax Ipsos poll published on Monday showed Abbott’s personal standing falling to levels equal to the lowest suffered by Gillard, and the Coalition at an election-losing 48% to Labor’s 52% in two-party-preferred terms.
But in a series of interviews Abbott continued to deny he had broken election promises on health and education and insisted his government had the “fundamentals” right. He shrugged off leadership speculation by comparing himself with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
“The Howard government, the Thatcher government, the Reagan government all had rough patches in the polls, and I’m not the first leader to be subject to a bit of speculation,” he told Seven’s Sunrise.
Abbott is facing a revolt in Liberal branches in his electorate over the plan to redevelop the former defence site. It has also been criticised by one of his sisters who lives in the area, Jane Vincent.
The locals say the development is another broken promise by Abbott, who said in a speech in April 2012: “Largely at my instigation, the Howard government committed more than $115m to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to preserve the natural and built heritage of places like North Head and Middle Head.”
Jones had previously rounded on Hunt’s parliamentary secretary Simon Birmingham over the development, saying it was Abbott’s “Julia Gillard moment”.
