Analyzing Tony Abbott's Leadership and Policy Decisions

Tony Abbott served as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia from September 2013 to September 2015. Despite holding a significant position, Abbott's popularity was hampered by criticisms regarding his autocratic leadership style and economic policies. This essay delves into his tenure, highlighting his inclination toward autocratic decision-making while attempting to present himself as a democratic leader. Throughout his premiership, Abbott faced numerous challenges including controversy over the deregulation of university fees which led to public discontent. His budget strategies also drew criticism for being passed without adequately considering public sentiment, particularly in NSW elections. The essay suggests that transparency and strategic planning could have mitigated some of these issues by aligning policy-making with democratic principles and conducting thorough research on public acceptance before implementing new budgets.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP
1.0 Introduction
Leadership is important factor for refining the skills and competencies of the followers.
An effective leader enhances the positive traits of its followers and suggests them suitable
directions through which they can improve. Grohar-Murray et al. (2016) also stated that
leadership explains that in order to accomplish any mission or objective, ‘people’ are the most
important unit and their traits need to be considered. Stacey (2012) furthermore depicted that
leadership helps in overcoming three challenges- generating a shared vision, setting effective
objectives and providing strategic direction along with developing effectual strategies.
In this essay the leadership traits of Tony Abbott is taken into consideration. Tony Abbott
is an Australian politician born on 4th November 1957 (BBC News 2018). He is the 28th Prime
Minister of Australia and served this designation from the September, 2013 to September, 2015
(BBC News 2018). This essay will address the work history, educational background and family
background of the leader. The discussion will be followed by the approach of leadership that
Tony Abbott had followed and the discussion is also supported by relatable leadership theory and
some actions that the leader had taken to demonstrate the effectiveness his leadership style. This
essay will also illustrate of the details of the key challenges Tony Abbott had faced as a leader
and the process to overcome those challenges. Lastly, an overall conclusion will be presented
based on the discussion.
2.0 Discussion
Tony Abbott’s parent was Fay Abbott and Richard Henry Abbott (BBC News 2018). In
the year 1960, Tony Abbott’s family migrated to Australia and they settled in Sydney. The

2LEADERSHIP
primary education of Tony Abbott was from St Aloysius’ College, Sydney and his secondary
education was from St. Ignatius’ College, Sydney (BBC News 2018).Tony Abbott has a
bachelor’s degree in Economics and after that he has completed his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in
the year 1979 and 1981 respectively (BBC News 2018). He has also accomplished his Bachelor
of Arts degree in Philosophy from The Queen’s College, Oxford (BBC News 2018). After
completing the educational phase, Tony Abbott worked as a journalist in several magazines and
newspapers like ‘The Catholic Weekly’, ‘The Australian’ and ‘The Bulletin’ (BBC News 2018).
He also trained as a Catholic priest but changed his mind for not continuing and later in Liberal
Party, he worked as an adviser from 1994 (BBC News 2018). Tony Abbott has also served as an
employment minister under the former PM John Howard from the year 1998 and 2001 and from
the year 2003 he served as a minister for health and aging (BBC News 2018).
The leadership style followed by Tiny Abbott is Autocratic leadership style. Bhatti et al.
(2012) portrays that in autocratic leadership style, the leaders considered himself as a boss and
intends to impose their directions and regulations on the people without giving proper
justification. Ng'ethe et al. (2012) furthermore supported this argument by stating that on
following this leadership style, the leader cannot assess the final outcome of the people’s
response towards their decisions as the leader think their decision is the best and they dent to
learn new things. Tony Abbott in this case does the same and follows autocratic leadership style.
People think that he misused the prime Minister’s designation and impose some legislation to the
Australian economy that is not beneficial for longer run. This action can be best exemplified
through an incidence, where Tony Abbott marked “carbon tax repeal” as his greatest
achievement during his ministry and according to him the taken action is most beneficial for
women. Tony Abbott made the statement that by repealing the carbon tax; household’s average

3LEADERSHIP
energy bill will be saved up to $210 per year (Shields 2018). However, the common people made
a comment that the saving that he had highlighted is negligible compared to the loss that
Australia will have to face due to the climate changing impact.
According to another theory of leadership that is democratic leadership theory, Pennock
(2015) depicted that an effective leader always informed their followers regarding the changes
the leaders planned to implement. The prime reason for this action is to establish a transparent
image between the leader and their followers. Tony Abbott desires to follow democratic
leadership traits and shared all the planned aspects with the followers. However, the challenge
Tony Abbott faced is that he did not kept any of his promise. Some of the promises that he had
made to common people was “No local Medicare closures”, “26 weeks of paid parental leave to
mothers delivering a budget surplus” and “no negative changes to superannuation” (The Sydney
Morning Herald 2018). However, not even a single promise has been kept by Tony Abbott.
Rasler and Thompson (2016) stated that a leader with democratic leadership traits, should
communicate with their follower in friendly manner and possess a gentle behavior. Tony Abbott
on the other hand intends to use a strong language and this is the reason that he has failed to
control the more extreme members of his government.
The key challenge that Tony Abbott had faced is during the ban of Carbon Tax as many
people opposes this proposal. Those people are more concerned towards the carbon emission
changes and the future impact of climate change. The solution that Tony Abbott had taken is to
call a double dissolution if anyone tried to stop him. However, the process is completed after
eight months without any double dissolution. Esping-Andersen (2017) suggested that in order to
stratify the nation’s people, they should be regular informed not only with their promises byt the
actions to fulfill the promise. This can be done through broadcasting every action through digital

4LEADERSHIP
media and newspapers. This will allow the other people to know the actions that the government
is taking and to will generate a transparent relation. Another key challenge that the concerned
leader have faced is for the budget, NSW election, higher education reforms and COAG meeting
(The Sydney Morning Herald 2018). The budget is reformed due to the new incorporation of the
aspects from Medicare, welfare, tertiary education and government cuts in SBS and ABC (The
Sydney Morning Herald 2018). In the year 2015, the cost-cutting agenda will be continued which
is another aspect to face challenge as they are not aware what measures are the public willing or
unwilling to tolerate (The Sydney Morning Herald 2018). However, the leader has not taken any
steps to overcome this problem to satisfy the community people. In this aspect, Tony Abbott can
take feedback from the community people and the level of satisfaction that they shared. Beetham
(2013) also stated that investing some time on primary researching on the fact will allow the
politician to know the concern of their nation’s member and a better solution could be taken
every time. Another challenge that Tony Abbott has to face is government's controversial
reforms to tertiary education. Ng'ethe et al. (2012) stated that a deadline has been set to pass the
bill by Education Minister Christopher Pyne, but Tony Abbott deregulate university fees, which
is an unpopular decisions. The controversy raises more as the bill has been passed to Senate for a
second time and for advertising purpose, millions of dollars have been invested (The Sydney
Morning Herald 2018). Thus, in this case, a huge amount of cost has been spent but the result is
not fruitful if the education of the students is considered. An effective leader will formulate a
detailed budget along with the supervision of the finance minister so that a precise budget can be
formulated Grohar-Murray et al. (2016). Verba (2015) furthermore suggested that the leader
should also formulate a strategic plan for the next 5 years so that the reliability of the plan can be
evaluated. This will help Tony Abbott to avoid the adversity of making false promises.

5LEADERSHIP
3.0 Conclusion
Thus, it can be stated that Tony Abbott was the 28th Prime Minister of Australia but he is
not popular and remarkable leader due to the failed knowledge of leadership. There are other
leaders, who said that Tony Abbott did not have any economic knowledge. This essay have also
highlighted that he followed only autocratic leadership theory, where he just imposed all the
taken decisions on the community without giving proper decisions. It is also considered that he
intends to follow the democratic leadership style and desire to develop a transparent relationship
with the followers. The action that he opted was to share some promises but the adversity arises
when the promises has not been fulfilled. The challenges that Tony Abbott faced was
unpopularity in NSW elections and controversy for deregulating university fees along with the
anger of communal because the budget of cost-cutting agenda has been passed without
considering the prior willingness to tolerate the new budget. The suggested solution in the first
case is to share all the promises made and the action to fulfill those promises through digital
media so that it can be spread to all the community people. The problem to the second problem is
to formulate a detailed budget plan along with a 5-year future strategic goal so that a realistic
image can be obtained. The third problem can be solved by conduction a primary research prior
establishing any budget for the human welfare or mankind.

6LEADERSHIP
4.0 Reference List
BBC News., 2018. Profile: Tony Abbott. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
asia-pacific-10645410 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].
Beetham, D., 2013. Max Weber and the theory of modern politics. John Wiley & Sons.
Bhatti, N., Maitlo, G.M., Shaikh, N., Hashmi, M.A. and Shaikh, F.M., 2012. The impact of
autocratic and democratic leadership style on job satisfaction. International Business Research,
5(2), p.192.
Esping-Andersen, G., 2017. Politics against markets: The social democratic road to power.
Princeton University Press.
Grohar-Murray, M.E., DiCroce, H.R. and Langan, J.C., 2016. Leadership and management in
nursing. Pearson.
Ng'ethe, J.M., Namusonge, G.S. and Iravo, M.A., 2012. Influence of leadership style on
academic staff retention in public universities in Kenya. International journal of business and
social science, 3(21).
Pennock, J.R., 2015. Democratic political theory. Princeton University Press.
Rasler, K. and Thompson, W., 2016. Puzzles of the democratic peace: theory, geopolitics and the
transformation of world politics. Springer.
Shields, B., 2018. Carbon tax repeal my top achievement for women: Abbott. [online] The
Sydney Morning Herald. Available at:

7LEADERSHIP
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-names-carbon-tax-repeal-as-
his-top-achievement-as-minister-for-women-20141221-12bw42 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].
Stacey, R.D., 2012. Tools and techniques of leadership and management: Meeting the challenge
of complexity. Routledge.
The Sydney Morning Herald., 2018. The challenges facing Tony Abbott over the next six
months. [online] Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/the-
challenges-facing-tony-abbott-over-the-next-six-months-20150209-13a228.html [Accessed 19
Jan. 2018].
Verba, S., 2015. Small groups and political behavior: A study of leadership. Princeton
University Press.