The former prime minister Tony Abbott has described the Morrison government’s Covid response as a “grotesque overreaction” to a “relatively mild pandemic”, adding he reluctantly got vaccinated because he “didn’t want anyone to have an excuse for keeping us locked up any longer than was absolutely necessary”.
Abbott, who also served as a health minister under the Howard government, clarified he was not opposed to vaccinations but used a feminist slogan – “my body, my choice” – to voice his opposition to vaccine mandates in a podcast hosted by Graham Hood, a former leader of the anti-vaccine mandate movement.
“I’m certainly not anti-vax, but in the end, at least for adults, that old slogan, ‘my body my choice’, I know that was deployed in a different context but nevertheless, there’s a lot of merit in that slogan,” he said.
“And yet, that certainly wasn’t the approach that health authorities adopted at the time.”
It is not the first time Abbott has criticised Australia’s response to the global pandemic.
Abbott decried Australia’s “health dictatorships” at a London event in September 2020, saying the economic cost of lockdowns meant families should be allowed to consider letting elderly relatives with coronavirus die by letting nature take its course.
The nearly hour-long interview focused heavily on Abbott’s views on the pandemic but veered into conspiracy territory when the senior Liberal figure was asked whether there were nefarious reasons behind why those promoting unproven Covid treatments, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, were ignored.
While Abbott said he was “deeply sceptical” about theories sounding conspiratorial, he questioned whether there were vested interests behind the scenes.
“I’ve certainly generally [been] deeply sceptical about anything that smacks of conspiracy. But there did certainly appear to be a lot of herd thinking. A lot of, I guess, reluctance to be open minded about things,” Abbott said.
“And you do sometimes wonder what pressures were being brought to bear behind the scenes by different entities that may or may not have had financial interests involved.”
Since being ousted from his north shore seat by independent MP, Zali Steggall, in 2019, Abbott has made a career giving speeches on the conservative thinktank circuit.
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In addition to joining Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation board of directors, Abbott sits on various boards, including for the climate change sceptic group, the Global Warming Foundation, and the international conservative organisation, the Jordan Peterson-led Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.
But Abbott told the podcast he is otherwise “sceptical” of global bodies, such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations, and believes it would be a “grievous error” for Australia to bind itself to the directions of such bodies.
“I tend to be a sceptic of global bodies anyway. I believe that you’re more likely to get wisdom out of the democratic qualities of countries like Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States than you are out of the body such as the UN,” he said.
John Larter, one of the podcast’s hosts, promoted Abbott’s appearance on the podcast as speaking volumes about “what we’re doing”.
“[Former prime ministers] research these things – they just don’t go on anyone’s program and I think it demonstrates that he would believe that, you know, we are doing a good job,” the host said before introducing the former prime minister.
Hood and Larter noted Abbott had declined to appear on ABC’s Nemesis series – the first prime minister to do so in three decades – but had chosen to join the two for the 48-minute podcast.
