FED:Abbott takes campaign to Twitter

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2012
FED:Abbott takes campaign to Twitter

By Paul Osborne

CANBERRA, Feb 2 AAP - Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has used a lunch break
from shadow cabinet to answer a barrage of questions on Twitter.

Mr Abbott, who uses the hashtag @tonyabbottMHR and has just over Twitter 49,000 followers,
announced on the social networking site at 1pm (AEDT) that he was "happy to take some
questions for the next 15 minutes".

While he evaded questions from Canberra press gallery journalists, he covered a range
of topics, from the economy to gay marriage.

He also ducked a number of out-of-left-field questions, including "Could you please
stop wearing speedos" and "What is the superior Indiana Jones movie?"

Asked what he could do to offset the high Australian dollar which is affecting manufacturing,
he said: "Not that much we can do about the dollar but we can scrap the carbon tax which
is an economic own goal."

On the issue of a conscience vote by Liberal MPs on gay marriage legislation, he said:
"We took a policy to the last election and we don't say one thing before an election and
do the opposite afterwards."

When one tweeter pleaded with him not to "dump the disability insurance scheme", he
replied: "We support NDIS. I want the budget back in surplus so we can do it."

On the question of the coalition's water resources plan, he wrote: "Part of it new
dams, especially in nthn (northern) Australia and new infrastructure in the MD (Murray
Darling) basin."

When one tweeter urged him "Let's get rid of Gillard", Mr Abbott mischievously wrote:
"Kevin's looking after that today."

He also had some praise for his mentor, former prime minister John Howard, when someone
asked who he would back in a "deathmatch between (Ronald) Reagan and Howard".

"I always go for the Aussie!" he wrote.

The opposition leader signed off "thanks twitterverse" and suggested he might try Facebook
after the shadow cabinet meeting.

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KEYWORD: ABBOTT TWITTER

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