Tony Abbott Dragged Malcolm Turnbull For Making A Deal On Gun Laws… After Doing The Same Thing

Remember the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC)? Me neither, but it was the reason we went to an early, double-dissolution election. The anti-union legislation is back on the political agenda and Malcolm Turnbull is dead keen to pass it, but he’s struggling to get the numbers in the senate.

Labor and the Greens are opposed to the ABCC so the Coalition needs as many crossbench senators as they can get. One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team have said that they’re open to supporting the legislation, but that’s still not enough votes. Enter everyone’s favourite libertarian, Senator David Leyonhjelm.

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Leyonhjelm is open to supporting the ABCC legislation if Malcolm Turnbull weakens Australia gun law regime. Because that’s how politics works in this country ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In particular he wants an import ban on the Adler shotgun lifted. The gun was banned in Australia because it could fire eight rounds in eight seconds. That ban got gun rights advocates in Australia, including Leyonhjelm, very mad.

Labor leapt on today’s reports that the Coalition was considering a deal on gun laws in exchange for Leyonhjelm supporting the ABCC. They piled the pressure on Turnbull and eventually forced him to rule out changing gun laws.

But before that happened, ex-PM Tony Abbott helpfully intervened in the debate with this tweet:

Disturbing to see reports of horse-trading on gun laws. ABCC should be supported on its merits.

— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) October 18, 2016

Good on ya for taking the moral high ground, Tony. Except soon after this tweet was sent out, David Leyonhjelm released an awkward piece of correspondence between his office and the Abbott government. That correspondence showed the government had agreed to lift the ban on the Alder shotgun in exchange for Leyonhjelm’s vote on legislation relating to asylum seekers.

The letter to Leyonhjelm proves two things: 1) Abbott, despite his tweet, was willing to weaken gun laws in order to secure support in the senate for an unrelated bill and 2) Leyonhjelm is willing to trade his vote away on issues in return for a lifting of the Adler shotgun ban.

At this point in time it seems unlikely that Malcolm Turnbull will cave in on the shotgun ban, even if that makes it harder to pass the ABCC legislation. The other thing we’ve learnt today? Tony Abbott is a massive hypocrite.