darinsullivan.blogspot.com: 'Sexist' Abbott blasted in new book #Auspol

Unflattering portrait ... Tony Abbott. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

TONY Abbott is a sore loser, afflicted by ''innate and deeply embedded sexism and misogyny'', and would use a future prime ministership to impose his simplistic views on the country, according to a provocative new book to hit the shelves tomorrow.

The new polemic by academic Susan Mitchell paints an intensely unflattering portrait of the man who would be Australia's next prime minister, sketching Mr Abbott as a graceless, obsessively competitive ''man's man''; a ferocious partisan imbued with conservative Catholic social values.

The book was drawn from press reports, studies of the Opposition Leader, particularly Michael Duffy's 2004 biography, Mr Abbott's writings and the author's observed conclusions. Dr Mitchell deploys what her publisher describes as a ''blistering'' critique in narrating Mr Abbott's life from his childhood to his current period as Opposition Leader.

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Dr Mitchell told The Age yesterday she did not interview Mr Abbott for the project. ''That wasn't the sort of book I wanted to write. I wanted to do a more analytical piece than that.''

Mr Abbott's spokesman confirmed Dr Mitchell ''made no contact with Tony or his office in the preparation of her book. She has not sought to interview Tony as part of her research.''

Dr Mitchell said she was motivated to write the book because ''there's a narrative missing about Tony Abbott in the political discussion''.

Dr Mitchell said she saw no evidence that Mr Abbott's views had moderated with time, if anything ''he's become more right wing and fixed in his views''.

She said initiatives like Mr Abbott's paid parental leave scheme - mentioned only briefly in the book - and his decision to employ women as senior advisers, did not demonstrate an evolution in thinking.