U.S. think tank compares Australia's leader to 'dangerously unhinged' Kim Jong-un
IMAGE: AP IMAGES/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An American journalist and fellow at a notable U.S. think tank has called Australia's Prime Minister "incompetent" and questions whether he is "the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?"
The rhetorical question was published in a Feb. 5 post by Joshua Kurlantzick on the Council on Foreign Relations' website, a day before Prime Minister Tony Abbott defeated a leadership spill motion — a push to declare his position vacant — from within his own party.
In the scathing piece, titled Tony Abbott Has To Go, Kurlantzick compared the country's conservative prime minister to "dangerously unhinged" world leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin who are "making policy based on whims, advice from a tiny handful of advisers, or some other highly unscientific formula." The article then berates Abbott further by stating: at least these men do not run powerful democracies.
Kurlantzick, who last year predicted a 2015 ousting was on the cards for Abbott, said "in less than two years as prime minister, Abbott has proven shockingly incompetent."
These are strong words to a leader fighting party instability and a dismal public approval rating. The think tank article states Australia's leader has "proven so incapable of clear policy thinking" and shown an absolute unwillingness to consult his ministers over major policy decisions "that he has to go."
Abbott has faced a slew of public relations issues during his short 16-month term, from his strange behaviour with Putin at the G20 in Brisbane, Australia, through to his tough stance on climate change inaction. He has been called a "great wartime leader" whereas Australia now needs a "peacetime leader."
The think tank highlights the knighting of the Queen's husband Prince Phillip — a decision questioned by his own party, the public and even his supporters — as a disastrous decision for his leadership survival. But Kurlantzick doesn't stop there. He labels Abbott "ill-informed," "incapable," "baffled" and "unsure," and describes him as a man who stumbles over policy commitments, makes poor decisions and lacks coherency.
Why, he asks, has Australia not done better than this? Ouch.
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