The Sydney Morning Herald on 3rd March 2010:
While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was gearing up for a big health announcement, his opposite number was yesterday contemplating a cold and uncomfortable night, lost and sleeping rough, before being saved.
Just before lunchtime yesterday, Mr Abbott set off with a small party on "quad" four-wheeled motorbikes to ride deep into Watarrka country in search of Aboriginal sacred sites.
Six hours later, separated from his "guide and guru", local Aboriginal entrepreneur Ian Conway, and with sundown approaching, Mr Abbott and his companions were seriously concerned about their situation: stuck in unfamiliar country, with no idea of the way out and no way of communicating with the outside world."
"Back in October last year, I promised a group of Aboriginal stockmen that I would soon return to observe progress in the re-establishment of an Aboriginal cattle industry in the Northern Territory. It was not a promise that I considered I could break just because I now had a different job. The problems of indigenous Australia need to be taken seriously by Australia’s leaders and not just by the ministers and shadow ministers with special responsibility for them.
That’s how I came to be on a quad bike, low on fuel, following tyre tracks in the gathering dark earlier this week."
Alice Springs News on 19th August 2010:
“Country Liberals heavies appear to have been scheming to sacrifice Leo Abbott – highly unlikely to win Lingiari – to get at Labor’s Damien Hale who is on a knife’s edge in the seat of Solomon (Darwin).
This is suggested by an email exchange leaked to the Alice Springs News……
The apparent schemers behind the attempted dumping include former Chief Minister Shane Stone, CL director Peter Allen and treasurer Graeme Lewis.
Mr Lewis said to 10 addressees: “I doubt that disendorsement is a legal option – voting has started.
“But we need to put petrol on the issue to fix Hale right up.”
Eureka Street on 8th November 2010:
“But there is something I find deeply disturbing in the way he carries out his public role. Charming and disarming as he can be, I find myself wondering wherein lies his moral core. Not long after his election as leader of the Liberal Party, Abbott was trying to explain away statements from his past claiming that he sometimes makes 'unreliable statements' in the 'heat of discussion.' At that time I thought that the way to get a handle on Tony Abbott was to realise that he was like a high school or university debater. He would say anything to win an argument, confident that there would be no consequences to his actions.”
ABC Darwin on 12th November 2010:
“We know that pollies are prone to bending the truth, but if you want to believe that sometimes they straight out lie....read on. Our Territory can be pretty daunting, mysterious and foreign for those who don't know her well...and it seems that Tony Abbott exploited those ideas to generate a bit of publicity. In fact, the allegation from one person in the know, is that this story was a complete beat up! Lies!”
Audio clip http://blogs.abc.net.au/nt/2010/11/tony-abbotts-territory-lie.html?site=darwin&program=darwin_drive
Alice Springs News on 18th November 2010:
“Former Country Liberal Party (CL) candidate Leo Abbott would not confirm nor deny that he was offered a government job, if the Liberals won, on condition that he withdrew from the candidacy.
Mr Abbott was standing in Lingiari in this year’s Federal election amidst a bitter party dispute over allegations against him of domestic violence.
Despite a boycott from members of his own party, Mr Abbott made significant inroads into the votes of long-term sitting member, Warren Snowdon, in the formerly safe Labor seat.
Reports of the job offer come from well informed sources.
The offer is alleged to have been made by NT Opposition Leader Terry Mills and his Federal counterpart, Tony Abbott (no relation to the candidate). Tony Abbott’s office said the story “is totally incorrect”.
A spokesman for Mr Mills said he “won’t be feeding the rumour mill on this matter”.
The Sydney Morning Herald on 25th November 2010:
“The Northern Territory's attorney-general is seeking an investigation into claims Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his NT counterpart tried to bribe a candidate not to run in the 2010 federal election.
NT Attorney-General Delia Lawrie has tabled in the NT parliament her letter asking the Australian Electoral Commission to investigate allegations that Tony Abbott and NT Opposition Leader Terry Mills had offered Country Liberal candidate Leo Abbott a job if he withdrew from the election……
She wrote that she was "very concerned" that "inducement was offered to the Country Liberal candidate for Lingiari Leo Abbott to withdraw his candidacy".
"It is asserted that this offer was made by the Leader of the Federal Liberal Party, Mr Tony Abbott, and Leader of the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party, Mr Terry Mills," the letter said.”
Club Troppo on 26th November 2010:
No doubt governments frequently make such offers to induce lame-duck MPs or candidates to walk away quietly, but they’re invariably done behind closed doors with only loyal insiders present. However in the current situation there’s a disaffected former CLP Management Committee member by the name of Steve Brown who apparently claims to have been present during the phone hookup when the offer was made. Brown is gunning for the political carcass of the party’s current parliamentary leader Terry Mills and seems prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve it. Brown is rumoured to have significant support within CLP ranks in Alice Springs though less so in Darwin.
The possibility that these yokel machinations might even inadvertently pull down Tony Abbott as collateral road kill should not be completely discounted. Some may remember that former NSW Liberal Premier Nick Greiner lost his job in not dissimilar circumstances in 1992, though corruption charges against him were later dismissed. Terry Mills has kept his head down to date, and as far as I can tell the story hasn’t yet registered with the Canberra Press Gallery so Abbott hasn’t been questioned.
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