It was raining here at the time.. so no getting outside.
Here are 10 things that were missing from Abbott's 30-minute speech:
1) The horror Queensland election
Yes, the Prime Minister did release a statement about the dud result for Campbell Newman on Sunday and admitted there were "lessons" to be learnt.
But he did not refer to it once in his prepared comments, despite this being one of the major (recent) reasons why colleagues have pressed the panic button.
2) Higher education reforms
What happens to university fees and funding is one of the big unresolved issues for the government and is set to dominate the agenda when Parliament returns next week. Education Minister Christopher Pyne has pledged the government will not give up on the reform. So why wasn't it mentioned?
3) Medicare's future
It is a similar situation with Medicare. After so many goes at reform in the area, and so much backlash from the community, the Prime Minister had nothing to say about what the government has planned for the country's universal healthcare scheme.
4) Knights, dames and princes
Giving Prince Philip that knighthood has been the cherry on top of Abbott's problems. And yet, he did not say one peep about it in his prepared comments, which is strange, because he actually had an announcement in the area.
It took prompting in the question-and-answer session for him to reveal responsibility for picking knights and dames would be taken out of the his own hands and given to the Order of Australia Council.
5) Indigenous recognition
Abbott has previously described recognising indigenous Australians in the constitution as a priority of his government, saying last year, "I am prepared to sweat blood on this." There was no talk of sweat or blood on Monday.
6) Family policy detail
This speech was expected to give us a steer on where the government was going with its families package that Abbott announced as his summer holiday task in December. All we learnt from the speech is that the government would have a "better childcare policy" and "consult widely". He did confirm that he would ditch his "signature" paid parental leave scheme, but this had already been leaked to the weekend papers.
7) Other policy detail
Exhibit A: In terms of national security, Abbott said that if "cracking down" on extremism in Australia "means further legislation, we will bring it on".
😎 Domestic violence
A week after Rosie Batty was named Australian of the Year, calling on government to do more to address the issue, and Abbott himself acknowledged that domestic violence was a "very serious problem", this was one area ripe for comment. And another one that was left off the agenda.
9) His cabinet crew
Abbott pointedly referred to the "Abbott government" throughout his speech. But save for a mention of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in opening (non-speech) comments about journalist Peter Greste, he did not talk about his team. For example, "the Abbott government" - not Scott Morrison - had "stopped the boats". and "the Abbott government" - not Greg Hunt - had "scrapped the carbon tax".
10) A fresh narrative
Abbott spent huge chunks of his time on the lectern talking about things the government had already done. And repeated mantras we have have heard many, many times before. This includes the importance of a "strong economy", "jobs growth" and "budget repair" and that election classic: "Hope, reward and opportunity."
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/ten-things-missing-from-tony-abbotts-nation...
