Dumped minister Kevin Andrews calls for Tony Abbott to be returned to cabinet

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This was published 7 years ago

Dumped minister Kevin Andrews calls for Tony Abbott to be returned to cabinet

By Fergus Hunter
Updated

Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, a staunch conservative ally of Tony Abbott, has called for the former prime minister to be returned to cabinet after millions of voters from the party's traditional base abandoned them at the election.

Mr Andrews also said that the government's superannuation package and campaign complacency were among notable mistakes that drove voters to minor parties and independents.

Kevin Andrews says he paid for most of the trip himself but records show he also drew $1855 from his study entitlement.

Kevin Andrews says he paid for most of the trip himself but records show he also drew $1855 from his study entitlement.

"It would make sense to me to reappoint Mr Abbott. I mean, he's a man who's been prime minister of the country, he's got a lot of experience, he's seen as a figurehead, I think, of conservatives within the parliamentary party," he told Sky News' Andrew Bolt.

Right faction figures have been agitating for the former prime minister to be promoted but Mr Andrews' comments, appealing to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to be "magnanimous" and "practical", are some of the most forthright so far.

Dumped as defence minister by Mr Turnbull when he became leader, the Melbourne MP said the party's frontbench and policy platform should reflect the conservative and classical liberal traditions of the Liberal Party.

The Prime Minister is set to unveil a modified ministry in the coming week, likely to include rising conservative stars like Michael Sukkar and Zed Seselja, but he has previously poured cold water on the suggestion that Mr Abbott might return to the cabinet table.

"You have to look at what the base did and a significant proportion of the base deserted us. They went to minor parties and independents and we need to win them back," Mr Andrews, now "Father of the House" as the longest-serving MP in the House of Representatives, said on Wednesday.

"I think there were mistakes in our campaign, there were issues that arose and we've snuck across the line."

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"If you look at the issues that were raised with me, the most significant one was superannuation. The Medicare scare by Labor did cut."

A group of backbench MPs is reportedly seeking to wind back elements of the government's proposed crackdown on high-end superannuation, including the lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions and tightening the annual limit on contributions that receive a concessional tax rate.

They have been told to find alternative savings or revenue measures and the Prime Minister said on Thursday that the government would stick with the policies it took to the election.

Mr Andrews expressed concern about potential retrospectivity and said people should be encouraged, with policy certainty, to be self-reliant rather than drawing government payments.

He said the Coalition was "a bit too complacent about the way in which we conducted the campaign and I think if we had our time over again we would have been much more negative, much more quickly," including on trade unions.

"1.5 million people who would be usually considered centre-right voters didn't vote for the Coalition; voted for minor parties and independents. We have to be concerned about that," he said.

Key Turnbull supporter Wyatt Roy, who lost his Queensland seat following a savage swing to Labor, has also lamented that the Coalition lost the "ground game" of the election campaign amid the difficulty of articulating a long-term economic reform agenda.

"And then there is an insider political argument about how do you win the ground game in politics and I think that the Labor Party is probably ahead of us when it comes to the ground game, the voter-to-voter contact," he told ABC's 7.30 program.

"And you saw what they did with the Medicare campaign and I think that while that is disappointing, it is a very effective political strategy."

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