Rumours are swirling that Tony Abbott will be offered the post of High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
According to reports, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull may offer his in-party adversary the plum job to tease the former PM away from parliament in an effort to put an end to the continued undermining of his own authority.
“It is the time-honoured political tradition, when someone is being a pain, respond by giving them the best job in the world,” Seven Network political reporter Nick McCallum said on Monday.
According to some reports, a push is being mounted from within the Liberal Party to get Mr Abbott to take the job ahead of a speculated cabinet reshuffle in September.
Queensland MP Michelle Landry, who has been a supporter of the former prime minister, became the first government parliamentarian to publically call for the move.
“It’s probably time for (Mr Abbott) to move on,” Ms Landry said on monday, according to The Courier Mail and The Morning Bulletin.
High Commissioner to the UK is one of Australia’s most coveted post-political life postings. The residential position in London is currently held by Alexander Downer, another former Liberal Party leader who himself was given the position by the government when it was led by Tony Abbott.
Mr Abbott was in fact born in London to a British father and Australian mother, the family moving to Australia when he was a toddler. Mr Abbott later returned to Britain to study at Oxford University.
Mr Abbott has visited the UK on several occasions since being ousted from the Liberal Party leadership and prime ministership by Malcolm Turnbull, to give speeches – not without controversy – to conservative gatherings.
Mr Abbott’s critiquing of his party as led by Mr Turnbull has gained in intensity in recent weeks in interviews and speeches, including the offering of his own political manifesto which he claims, Tump-like, will “make Australia work again”.
“We need to make Australia work again,” he said in a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs in Brisbane in June. “Because our country is plainly not working as it should.”
TOP IMAGE: By MystifyMe Concert Photography (Troy) – Tony Abbott (16), CC BY 2.0, Link