Credlin & Co. by Aaron Patrick

Author:Aaron Patrick [Patrick, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

GOING TO WAR

Tony Abbott loved military culture, which shared much with his Catholic faith: the camaraderie, the masculinity, the respect for sacrifice. But his only direct experience of military life was the army cadets at Saint Ignatius College, Riverview, when he was a teenager. He had never held a national security portfolio in government. As prime minister, he was determined to play a big role in defence and security policy. Abbott also saw the military as a powerful political tool: appearing with soldiers generated good footage for the television cameras. It made him look like a leader, he felt.

War was always part of John Howard’s playbook. He used the slogan ‘Protecting, securing, building Australia’s future’ – and ‘protecting’ was, in part, a reference to a strong military. Howard had a couple of politically effective wars. In 1999 he secured East Timor after Indonesia withdrew, helping give birth to a new nation. He committed Australia to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, contributing to the end of the Taliban’s oppressive reign. There were, mercifully, few deaths. Howard made significant changes to domestic policy before he went to war.

Initially, Abbott’s defence minister was David Johnston, who was fascinated by military technology but didn’t seem to have a strategic grasp of defence and foreign affairs. That suited the prime minister, who wanted to make many of the major decisions for the portfolio himself. In late 2014 Abbott apparently mulled over invading Iraq to repel Islamic State, a plan so suicidal that it would have surely triggered his removal as PM before any Australian soldier got within a thousand kilometres of the front. In February 2015 journalist John Lyons reported that the prime minister had suggested the idea at a meeting in Canberra on 25 November, in the presence of Credlin and other advisers. After no one objected, Abbott raised it with military planners, Lyons wrote. ‘The military officials were stunned, telling Mr Abbott that sending 3500 Australian soldiers without any US or NATO cover would be disastrous for the Australians,’ the article said. ‘They argued that even the US was not prepared to put ground troops into Iraq and it would make Australia the only Western country with troops on the ground.’

The story hit like a bomb. No other item of news in the newspapers that morning got anywhere near as much coverage or discussion, on social media or on radio. Many Australians spent part of their Saturday morning wondering if their prime minister’s admiration for Winston Churchill extended to military follies. There was no confirmation or denial from the government in the article, even though Lyons reported that he had spent two hours interviewing Credlin. Later, Abbott’s office claimed Lyons hadn’t specifically said he was planning to write about the idea, an assertion the journalist contradicted.

Abbott compounded the confusion by giving a long and evasive-sounding denial the day the article was published. Appearing in Darwin with naval officers, he repeatedly described the article as ‘fanciful’. ‘The idea

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