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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ben Doherty

Saint Tony wants to slay the dragon – but is blind to the beasts of Australia’s past

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott
‘This is a good country, not a bad country,’ Tony Abbott has declared at the Sydney writers’ festival. Photograph: James McCauley/Shutterstock

“Go forth in search of dragons to destroy,” Tony Abbott, in a lyrical moment, tells his audience at the Sydney writers’ festival.

Certainly, there is no rest in Australia’s seemingly endless culture wars, the Manichean struggle of good versus evil, righteous versus ignoble, the virtues of straight-talking versus the perils of nuance and complexity.

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