Abbott, Credlin and the abuse of power.

By Barrie Cassidy.

To dismiss Niki Savva’s book, The Road to Ruin, as scuttlebutt or to just focus on rumours that Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin had an affair is an insult to all those involved who spoke up about the real issue – the abuse of power. Barrie Cassidy writes.

The two elected prime ministers who fell the fastest were Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. Neither survived a first term, cut down by their own.

Why do you think that happened? What was the common thread?

The answer is straightforward.

They gave extraordinary and dangerous authority to their staff. On top of that, in the case of Abbott – as forensically and convincingly told by Niki Savva in her book, The Road to Ruin – the key staffer, the chief of staff, Peta Credlin, used that “outsourced power” ruthlessly and indiscriminately, subjecting ministers and staff “to regular tirades, replete with vile language”.

In Rudd's case, he took care of the abuse himself.

The great pity with the release of The Road to Ruin is that the distraction around rumours that Abbott and Credlin were having an affair, robbed the more essential debate - around abuse of power - of the oxygen it deserved.

Neither did it get enough attention when Rudd transgressed. As I argued in my 2010 book, The Party Thieves, the more Rudd's popularity soared, the more he ruled alone, taking only sycophantic advice and being answerable to no one - not the party, the executive, the Cabinet or the caucus. MPs complained they were either ignored or abused.

Abbott and Credlin though turned that into an art form.

The media has focused largely on the visit Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells made to both Abbott and Credlin raising concerns that many people inside the Government believed they were having an affair.

The minister worried that the complex relationship between the two was having a detrimental impact on their lives, on their ability to do their jobs, and on the standing of the Government, and that's why she told Credlin she should go.

That's an important conversation, confirmed by the minister. It's not rumour or innuendo. It happened. To suggest that it should not have been in the book is ridiculous.

But the telling of that conversation has distracted from so many other well informed anecdotes and experiences that go to the heart of why Abbott failed. That is, Credlin's abuse of both power and people.

Here are some examples.

Fiona Telford: Previously, a Victorian-based press secretary who joined the office of Helen Coonan in 2007.

She says the belittling, the intimidation by Credlin, began early, with name calling and finger pointing in front of colleagues.

It built to intolerable levels.

She was eventually given a dressing down by Credlin who called her "a fucking useless bitch". She went home in tears, and says in the book that she fell into a state of anxiety and depression that lasted for more than three years.

Suzanne Kasprzak: An executive assistant. She had handled John Howard's diary for five years and built a reputation as a stalwart and an absolute professional.

For whatever reason Credlin turned on her.

According to Kasprzak, Credlin "would go into her office, close the door and start yelling at her. It happened time and again, with Credlin shouting at her that she was moody, she was inefficient, people were complaining about her. On it went."

Eventually Abbott called her into his office, told her he had never been better served by anybody, but because of a restructure, she had to go.

He gave her a bunch of flowers which she threw in the bin.

Murray Cranston: A devoted long time staffer. Towards the end of 2012 he told Credlin in front of a full staff meeting that she was the problem; that her mood swings and treatment of junior staff had a dramatic effect on morale. They were tired of being yelled at or sworn at.

Credlin fled the room in tears, closely followed by Abbott.

The advance man in the office, Richard Dowdy, told staffers he saw the prime minister-in-waiting sitting outside on the kerb of a busy Sydney street, trying to calm down his inconsolable chief of staff.

Rather than take Cranston's judgment on board, Abbott counselled him and insisted he buy Credlin a bunch of flowers as an apology. When he presented them, Credlin tossed them aside.

Another staffer, Claire Kimball, had the courage to tell Abbott as she left that he would end up "friendless, policy-less, a national joke, with Peta Credlin still hanging off you".

Senator Fierravanti-Wells told Credlin: "One day Tony will be sitting on a park bench in Manly feeding the pigeons, and he will blame you."

See the pattern? So many people prepared to put their names to these events. Yet the book is being dismissed as scuttlebutt. What an insult to all those involved.

And to argue, as some have, that Credlin is being unfairly singled out because she is a woman, is an insult as well; to all those women who have been the victim of sexism.

The behaviour so graphically described by staff would be intolerable coming from anybody, male or female. There is no gender issue here.

It is nonsense too for Credlin to write that she hopes "this doesn't put off smart women from joining the political fray".

Smart women should have no such fears, provided they don't behave as she did. And provided some prime minister into the future does not do what both Rudd and Abbott did: give staffers the authority and clout of the most senior ministers.

Some have argued - and they did in support of Rudd - that those around politicians should toughen up. Abuse comes with the territory.

I despair that some journalists coming into the political system in the last 10 years might feel that this kind of behaviour has always been the norm.

It never was, not until Rudd came onto the scene, and then Abbott after him.

Consider the two most successful long term governments since Bob Menzies - those of Bob Hawke and John Howard. Both administrations were characterised by civility and order within their office structures.

It's helpful to look back at key people in Hawke's office, people I worked closely with; the policy advisers.

Ross Garnaut (now professor of economics at ANU), Peter Harris (now Chairman of the Productivity Commission), Rod Sims (now Chairman of the ACCC), Sandy Hollway (CEO of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games), Dennis Richardson (Ambassador to the US and now head of the Department of Defence), John Bowan (who became Ambassador to Germany), Craig Emerson (who became Minister for Trade) and Stephen Sedgwick (who became Secretary of the Department of Finance).

All of them operated with freedom and autonomy, and they did their jobs superbly. None of them would have tolerated a single individual wielding the power that Credlin did; they would not have stood back and allowed the abuse and the intimidation to go on. And neither should they have.

By contrast, what will become of those who lived the Abbott experience under Credlin's control?

That's the real lesson of Savva's amazing book. And it was the real lesson of the Rudd downfall as well. How power and authority was used and abused.

Absolute power, in Credlin's case, did not corrupt, but it did lead to a deeply flawed system. Absolute power flawed the system absolutely.

Rudd and Abbott fell so rapidly. Hawke and Howard prospered for years.

What a pity it will be for future governments if the earlier experiences are forgotten; and the more recent lessons are lost as well in a narrow partisan and bitter row over a rumoured affair.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of the ABC TV program Insiders.

This post originally appeared on the ABC.

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