WHEN we had some feedback on Tony Abbott's bad behaviour in Bali turning up late for your first meeting and then adopting the Paul Keating swagger while declaring "I got here as quickly as I could" personified the 'ugly ocker abroad'.
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Diplomacy requires tact and finesse. Rudeness might appeal to some rednecks, but those Liberals who remember Mr Menzies are already cringing at your behaviour and 'one-term Tony' is being repeated more and more.
"I'm going to shirt-front Mr Putin." Behaving like a despotic ruler of a minor African republic bears no relationship to diplomacy. It just further trashes our reputation abroad.
I can only guess that Scott Morrison put you up to this as he is busily counting numbers (not gloating about boats, but cabinet votes in support of his aspirations).
Especially now when it was reported in the Murdoch press during the week that "German intelligence services have concluded the missile used to shoot down the Malaysian plane was a Ukrainian missile stolen by the rebels".
If what the was reported is true, it makes your rhetoric all the more silly.
When the United States Navy shot down a civilian airliner with the loss of 300 lives of men, women and children, I do not remember the then Liberal prime minister threatening to 'hip and shoulder' the president of the United States.
When we are complicit in the deaths of innocent men, women and children in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan (source: the latest book by Malcolm Fraser), I do not hear our prime minister suggesting a 'smack down' of the United States president.
I do not hear our prime minister demanding those people responding for these murders be brought to justice.
Please stop making Australians look silly by making inane comments while having the responsibility of being our prime minister.