Phillip Coorey

sort of subsequent bump in the polls.

They've just continued to flatline.

So whatever the problem was, it wasn't just about the leadership.

There's a more fundamental problem there.

Now, the government handed down a very controversial budget three weeks ago.

It really sharpened the lines between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party on economics and taxes and aspiration.

And that has

in a way throwing a lifeline to the Liberal Party because it's given them something they can galvanise around rather than the culture wars and all that other stuff.

This is something they're all at one on and Taylor's sort of been saying all the right things but it still really hasn't resonated.

I guess Abbott's come in to give some heft to that message

It will work so long as he doesn't start freelancing outside of, you know, whatever, Taylor.

So if Abbott starts coming out with his own policy ideas, and let's face it, he's had some pretty wild ones over the last couple of decades, and starts putting positions that are counter to that of the Parliamentary Party, then I think you will have more of a problem.

I mean, you could sort of trace...

the decline of the Liberal Party back to the sort of Abbott era in terms of the attitude towards women, some of the more unreconstructed views it had, you know, and its penchant for culture wars rather than sort of appealing to all voters.

And it's really when they began to slide.

So, yeah, it's a risk, but I think in the circumstances it's probably, you know, what else they've got to lose.

They're already down to 20% in the vote and staring at losing another swagger seats.

Anyway, it is what it is.

Here we are.

Well, I think you've got to be a bit careful about sort of being all misty-eyed about the past because things, politics changes, society changes.