“Throughout the western world we are living through a pandemic of doubt,” Tony Abbott said in his 1994 maiden speech. Some of that doubt, however, is given as a benefit to deserving types who might need a bit of moral wriggle room. As of Sunday, this indulgence is something we can no longer afford. The Australian people, Abbott said, have been played for mugs:
It’s clear to me, that for too long, we have given those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt.
There’s been the benefit of the doubt at our borders, the benefit of the doubt for residency, the benefit of the doubt for citizenship and the benefit of the doubt at Centrelink.
It’s time to make some hard choices about who will receive the benefit of the doubt from now on. Nobody can be profligate, and that includes the prime minister; in these tough times we need to keep a tight rein on who gets it, and who doesn’t.
Benefit of the doubt status, revoked: members of your own team
David Oldfield founded One Nation while working as a staffer for Tony Abbott. The party went on to capture a segment of the Coalition vote until John Howard absorbed much of Hanson’s platform. But how did Oldfield get away with it?
“My inclination was always to assume that the aggressive right wing views were out of character, not in character; that was my inclination,” Abbott told the ABC in 2010.
“You always give members of your own team the benefit of the doubt. In retrospect I was wrong.”
Benefit of the doubt status, revoked: Australia’s national character, as exemplified by supporters of the Liberal party
“As Liberals, we stand for the people who work hard, pay their taxes, volunteer in their local community and save for their retirement,” Abbott said on the 70th anniversary of the Liberal party.
“Because you embody what’s best in our national character; helping neighbours, giving people the benefit of the doubt, welcoming strangers, and ‘having a go’ at making everyone’s life better.”
Benefit of the doubt status, revoked: Julian Assange
“... I guess even people who’ve done the wrong thing have to be given the benefit of the doubt, the presumption of innocence and there doesn’t appear to have been an enormous amount of that from the [Gillard] government.”
Benefit of the doubt status, revoked: prime ministers of Australia
In his magnum opus, Battlelines, Abbott lamented that “Politicians live on a public stage but without the leeway that is sometimes extended to celebrities. Occasionally, when a politician is on a roll, faults are explained away. More often, though, no benefit of the doubt is given.”
Abbott was himself prepared to graciously extend it to his political rivals. In 2013 he noted the indulgence had been extended to Kevin Rudd over border control:
The Australian people in their goodness and decency are prepared to give even Mr Rudd the benefit of the doubt for a time ... [but] tell us what you’re going to do to stop the boats.
Later, he was happy to show the same goodwill to Julia Gillard over the AWU “scandal” that eventually became a royal commission:
Now, the point I keep making is that I’m more than ready to give the prime minister the benefit of the doubt but in order to give her the benefit of the doubt, we’ve got to hear her side of the story and all we’ve had from the prime minister so far are increasingly shrill stonewallings, increasingly shrill denials.
Abbott himself has been the beneficiary of the benefit of the doubt too. From a 2011 interview on Sydney’s 2UE:
To his credit, Mr Abbott is with me this morning. He was in the parliament like the rest of them until a quarter to three so he hasn’t had much sleep so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt during the conversation here. Mr Abbott, good morning.
But, sometimes it’s just too much to ask. As Fairfax journalist Judith Ireland tweeted in the wake of Abbott’s infamous wink:
Why aren’t people prepared to give Tony Abbott the benefit of the doubt on that wink? Is it the ‘woman problem’ again (sic)
Should Abbott revoke his own ability to claim the benefit? As we wait to see whether he can ride out the wobbles in his own leadership, his comments in the months before the 2013 election are, perhaps, worth reflecting on:
Look, the Australian people at the moment are relieved to see the back of a prime minister [Julia Gillard] they didn’t like. They are prepared to give the newcomer [Kevin Rudd], even though he is really a recycled newcomer, the benefit of the doubt but what they expect from him is real change...
Benefit of the doubt status, revoked: the whole planet
In 2007, Rupert Murdoch said the planet “deserved the benefit of the doubt” on climate change. Abbott followed suit:
Now, all of us are concerned about climate change, all of us want to do the right thing by our planet. We all want to give the planet the benefit of the doubt but we’ve got to have smart policies, not dumb policies to do that...
Climate change is, of course, no threat whatsoever to Australia. That’s lucky – in today’s economy, with all the threats we face, how could we extend the benefit of the doubt to a whole planet?
