Peter Fitzsimons Tony Abbott:

Peter FitzSimons’ interviews are always worth reading, as is his interview with Tony Abbott (“Abbott takes on old friends and foes and misogyny talk,” October 12). The takeaway message for me is that Abbott hasn’t changed. He’s still campaigning on the grounds that his view of the world is correct, and everyone else can’t keep up. He remains bitter about his defeat in the safest Liberal seats that fueled the rise of independents in Australia, and is perhaps the biggest threat to the Coalition now. His statement that “Trump’s speech at the UN last week had more good things than bad” puts Tony firmly in the Trump camp, at least on the issue of weaponizing immigration, and that’s where the far right will be campaigning. Gary Barnes, Mosman

Interestingly, in his interview with Fitz, Tony Abbott, commenting on early historical frontier massacres, says that “a lot of people rely on oral history written years after the event, so it’s not reliable.” So how is he to reconcile his strict Catholic beliefs when the oldest of the four Gospels was written nearly 40 years after Jesus’ death by “Mark”, whose true identity is still unknown? There is little direct historical evidence for the events of this period, and the other three “Gospels” were written almost a century after Jesus’ death, making them, in Abbott’s words, “unreliable.” Alan Marel, North Curl Curl

Fitzy has his own way of doing interviews and one thing is for sure: Fitzy never changes his views just to be able to interview the person more easily. This interview with Abbott was no different. He asked difficult questions without intimidation. I’m no fan of Abbott, but he was sincere, equally strong in his views contrary to Fitzy’s, and at heart was an unabashedly thick-skinned politician. Mukul Desai, Avcılar Hill

In an age of increasing violence, Tony Abbott appears as a reasonable person who has no sense of revenge in his post-political life. His statement during the 2019 election campaign that “people were almost spitting on me because I was supposedly destroying the planet, or because I was supposedly a friend of pedophiles and probably a pedophile myself because I didn’t reject George Pell” speaks volumes about his left-wing rivals. Abbott deserves respect for what he has achieved and for his personal qualities. Riley Brown, Bondi Beach

We often complain in this house about the lack of “civil conversation” in our public life, but the connection between Tony Abbott and Peter FitzSimons was a fine example of civil conversation. Elaine and Mick Prest, Marrickville

Infighting and apathy

As Jacqueline Maley so eloquently points out (“Taylor and the Liberals’ common problem”, October 12), the Liberals are lost in their own civil war and remain insignificant. Peter FitzSimons’ elder statesmen will be in the political wilderness for the foreseeable future, judging by the smug denial evident in his interview with Tony Abbott (“Abbott’s take on old friends and foes and his misogyny speech”, October 12). If they’re listening to him preach about women, climate change and First Nations, they’ll never escape the soggy paper bag. Martyn Frappell, Bulli

It was the lack of credible alternative policies that led to the demise of the Liberals in the last federal election. Blind Freddie can see that infighting has taken away the focus and energy to deliver the opposition’s policies. Federal Liberals urgently need to heed Confucius’ maxim: The real mistake is not the mistake but the refusal to correct it. Steve Ngeow, Chatswood

Status of teachers