Your guide to getting behind Tony Abbott #NoLibSpill

Well, after the #NoLibSpill event yesterday morning after the Liberal party went to a secret ballot, Tony Abbott is still our Prime Minister. We reported that piece of news and asked the community if you thought the party made the best decision for Australia. Most of you, point blank, said no.

But regardless of whether you support him or think we should be Abbott-free, we have to face the blatant fact that he is our Prime Minister.

We’ve sledged him, dragged him through the ringer, he’s had his entire person criticised and been living under a very big magnifying glass for the entire world to see as shared (correctly or incorrectly) by the media. So we’ve decided that it’s about time we all tried to get behind Tony Abbott whether you like him or not.

To help us all, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide of how to get behind Tony Abbot and give him some support in his newly re-confirmed role of Prime Minister of Australia.

1. Leave the sledging behind and accept him as the word bumbling, DT wearing, winking man he is.

It’s one thing to criticise people on their actions and intentions, but it’s another to criticise people on what they wear, the way they speak and their “personality quirks”. Our mothers all taught us that growing up. So why do we look at politicians like they’re fair game and let all of our social etiquette go out the window? Let’s all stop the petty insults – which at the end of the day are bullying – and start looking past all of that to the real things that we should judge a person on.

 2. Having an interest in macro-economic policy and stop thinking about the “what is best for me?” attitude and instead adopt the “will this make my great-grandkids better off?” attitude.

The Liberal party have always been built on broad economic principals. They focus on restabilising and rebalancing the country financially and economically. At the time, it often hurts. Welfare is cut, taxes increase and different benefits are lost, if we keep thinking about it like with the “what is best for me?” attitude we’ll all be walking around like grumpy gramps. Instead adopt the “will this make my great-grandkids better off?” attitude and we’ll be able to rationalise some of the hard-hitting policies.

 3. Learn more about Australian politics – why is Australia in debt, because the budget measures aren’t being passed in the senate.

We like to believe we’re informed but the truth is a lot of us aren’t educated well about Australian politics. We like to walk around saying that this government has left us in more debt than the last – well that’s because their big budget savings measures were blocked in the senate, continuing the spiral of debt-generating policies the last government left us.

4. Stop the blame game and instead give *valuable* feedback.

On any average weeknight my Facebook newsfeed is filled with interesting articles, funny cat videos, great recipes and people blatantly saying quite disgusting things about good old Tony Abbott. So many sit there, have a rant and tell the world how much they hate him and how he is a “massive d***head” but I don’t see any of them proposing better ideas of how to run the country? Let’s stop criticising and instead starting sharing our own answers… If you don’t have one perhaps stop posting.

5. Let’s consider the achievements and give credit where credit is due.

Tony Abbott has done some good things for this country – despite what we all like to focus on. When he announced the cut of his paid parental leave policy you were all very happy – you didn’t have that support so why should they younger generations? Abbott also established an Indigenous Advisory Council, established a seniors employment incentive, abolished the carbon tax, increased availability of loans to apprentices and he allocated $1.55bn to establish an Emissions Reduction Fund. Credit should go where credit is due.

6. Accept the fact that this is one of the country’s most difficult jobs and at the end of the day, he’s doing what he thinks is the best job he can do. That’s all we can ask of anyone, competent or not.

At the end of the day, we’re all human and whether you like it or not, he is doing his best at his job. That’s all we can ask of people. If you don’t think he is competent then that is another story and one that needs to be addressed in our entire political system. But he’s giving it his best go. Yesterday he said, “I love this country and I will do my best to make it successful.”

Do you think we should give Abbott a second chance and try to get behind him or continue to make his life difficult without our support? Share your thoughts in the comments below…

Editor’s note: Starts at 60 is not affiliated to any Australian political party. We are a discussion media site that invites our readers to talk about the articles that matter to them. This article in particular is satirical in nature.