Thanks for clearing that up.

Abbott is much more conservative than Turnball. Abbot objects to policies addressing climate change. He is anti gay marriage. He is a monarchist. He is anti abortion. Turnball is the opposite on all those issues. However Turnball lacks the numbers in the Liberal Party to achieve the things he would like to do.

How did he orchestrate a leadership spill victory and not have the numbers to steer the party in a more centrist direction? What kind of numbers does he need?

The reason his spill succeeded is the Abbott was polling badly and dragging the party down with him. Turnbull, while detested by those on the right of the party, is very popular with voters. If an election were called tomorrow the Liberals would win, whereas under Abbott they would probably lose.

My guess is a deal was done in the backroom with certain members on the right offering the leadership but with the condition that he does not change certain policies before the next election.

If Turnbull wins the next election (later this year) with a comfortable majority he will be in a stronger position to push his own views forward.

^ This is a good summary.

I can't tell if Putin is making a Pauline Hanson joke or not.

lol. I think he must be.

Didn't get the reference until I looked it up, lol.

Putin...Had you heard about the Tony Abbott comment that if Putin didn't fess up to Russian involvement via Ukrainian "rebels" in the shooting down of a large passenger commercial flight, in which many Australians lost their lives ....that he.. ( Tony Abbott ) would "shirtfront " Putin at the G20(?) meeting in Sydney....
Tony Abbott studied at either Oxford or Cambridge and might have "won a clulour'd ribbon of some (?) significance as a boxer as part of his " education " there
Abbott's had an active career in Australian Liberal Party politics since university in Australia, an been a "career" politician .
Turnbull is a successful " corporate" lawyer who with his wife made a fortune in business, he represents an electorate called Wentworth, in Sydneys Expensive Eastern suburbs...Double Bay, Vaucluse, Rose Bay, its also the part of Sydney where the Jewish community thrive..he only came into Federal politics in his 50's (?). ..
Abbott was imho more successful as an Opposition Leader than Prime Minister, very negative, combative....Turnbull has high appeal to the political "middle ground " in the population

Oh I'm aware that Tony Abbott is an out and out lunatic and devoted poodle of the United States, why wouldn't he threaten to physically attack another head of state like a thug? I just didn't think his policies were much different than Turnbull what with the whole kangaroo court going after the unions and whatnot and was interested in why Australian political parties like to knife Prime Ministers of their own party so much.

@MajorMitchell, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I don't believe Abbott was at all a successful leader in any respect. He was just blindly negative to everything, and he continued that stream of thought once he gained the prime ministership.

Just blocking every piece of legislation as opposition leader simply because he could does not make a country better, it makes it worse.

Well Putin, the other Putin likes to portray himself as a strong man, poses whilst waving around a big gun etc (which makes me think he has one of the tiniest membrum virilis in all of Russia ) ...and if I had to pick a PM or ex PM out of the various leaders & recently ousted leaders to don the boxing gloves and engage Putin the self promoting tough guy in a pugilistic encounter, daffy Tony Abbott would be a contender... Actually we have a federal independent member of our House of Representatives ( like the House of Commons in the UK ) who might give some clues as to rich guys like Dodo Trump in political power..with our larger than a blimp Clive Palmer....although there is a huge difference in the position that Dodo Trump is after and being an isolated mp in the Australian house of reps...

Crudeness seems to be in the Australian political culture. At any rate I highly doubt a scrawny bike riding aficionado like Mr. Shirt-Front could last 3 seconds against a man who has a judo and karate blackbelt. Good luck with that.

Why would Putin fight him if he could just poison him with Polonium 210?

Australian politics are weird like that. Backroom deals are par for the course here :)

Putin, you are arguing from ignorance.. and you've obviously never got close to Tony Abbott.. scrawny is just so innacurate..and Abbott does a lot more physical training than ride a bicycle... Abbott would have advantage in height, reach and weight, he'd knock your other Putin into dreamland in a heartbeat.. I find this most ironic.. as I'm not a Tony Abbott supporter and much prefer Malcolm Turnbull as PM... and I was making a comparative comment relative to other Politicians.. eg would you back that stumpy tub of lard from North Korea against Putin, or would Abbott be a stronger competitor ?

As far as the Liberal Party goes, my understanding is that the party organisation in Victoria has undergone significant reform, the New South Wales branch hasn't, and it's a basket case in South Australia

Oh why yes, your terrifying former Prime Minister stands at a towering 175 cm. Which, incidentally, is the exact same height as "stumpy" Kim Jong Un. I'd say Kim Jong Un is a bit more of a threat than your buddy Hugo Weaving, considering he faced down the DPRK military brass at the age of barely 30 while Abbott's claim to fame is verbally abusing people on the basis of their gender.