This is the text of a speech delivered to a gathering of young Liberal Party members by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Abbott.

In the speech, Abbott discusses the nature of the Howard government and the balance between conservatives and liberals in the Liberal Party.

The future prime minister had been a member of parliament for seven years at the time of this speech, and a minister for three.

Text of speech by Tony Abbott to Young Liberal members.

Towards the end of the Coalition’s 13 years in the wilderness, Michael Kroger gave a thoughtful analysis of why we’d failed. He made the point that almost every Labor MP had been a political professional before entering parliament while most Coalition MPs came to politics after a career in the professions or in small business. After years of addressing union meetings, doing deals, and writing press releases, national politics “came naturally” to Labor MPs in ways it simply did not to people for whom it was a “second career”. [Read more…]