Tony Abbott on life as a former Prime Minister

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited Burnie on April 30. He spoke with The Advocate's Sean Ford.

Transcript

00:00What's it like being an ex-PM?

00:03Well, it's the inevitability of anyone, for anyone who ever becomes PM,

00:08that sooner or later you'll be an ex-PM.

00:12I do my best to cherish the honour that was mine for two years to lead our great country

00:20and try not to let the relevance deprivation syndrome that every one of us suffers from

00:28get the better of me.

00:30I mean, the difference between the various ex-PMs, and we have lots of them in Australia,

00:36arguably too many, is that some of us are better than others at managing the relevance deprivation syndrome.

00:43But I sometimes joke that as an ex-Prime Minister, I'm like a recovering politician.

00:54And every time one gets involved in something political, it's a welcome opportunity to relapse.

01:04Okay.

01:05Well, I mean, it's interesting.

01:07I mean, you rose as high as possible in that profession, if we were to call it a profession.

01:12How do you, after something like that, how does a person find, I guess, motivation and meaning in life?

01:18And I don't just mean for ex-PMs, I mean for anyone who's been successful.

01:21I think you'll find, Sean, that, I mean, look, you've met many politicians over the years,

01:27but my view is that almost everyone who goes into public life goes into it with a strong sense of idealism,

01:41a commitment, a passion.

01:44And if you've got that idealism, if you've got that commitment, if you've got that passion,

01:48it doesn't go just because you're no longer in the Parliament.

01:51And you find other ways of giving expression to it.

01:56And look, I'm on various good cause boards.

02:01I'm involved with some think tanks.

02:04And as far as I can, I do my best to be helpful to my former colleagues.

02:12So I'm just as committed to the liberal, conservative, patriotic causes today as I've ever been.

02:25I guess I just try to support them in a slightly different way now than in the past.