Abbott, a Rhodes Scholar, and former trainee Catholic priest, journalist and political advisor, had entered Parliament in 1994 as the Member for Warringah and served as a senior minister in the Howard government, which lost office at the 2007 election to the Australian Labor Party, led by Kevin Rudd.

[22] Eric Abetz retained the portfolio of Employment, George Brandis was appointed Attorney-General, Christopher Pyne as Education Minister, and Abbott's former leadership rival Malcolm Turnbull took Communications.

Julie Bishop and Australia's UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan led negotiations at the United Nations Security Council to adopt a unanimous resolution, demanding that the armed groups in control of the crash site refrain from interfering with it and allow for the repatriation of victims and an international investigation into the attack.

[55][56] Abbott met with US President Barack Obama in June 2014, in Washington, and approved a legal agreement for the deployment of around 1,300 US Marines to the Northern Territory, first proposed under the Gillard government.

Given the sheer scale of the horror unfolding in Syria, Iraq and everywhere Daesh gains a foothold – the beheadings, the crucifixions, the mass executions, the hurling off high buildings, the sexual slavery – and its perverse allure across the globe, it's striking how little has been done to address this problem at its source.

"[77] In July, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Sydney Institute that ISIL is not "Hitler's Germany, Tojo's Japan or Stalin's Russia" and that government should not amplify its significance.

In September 2014, Abbott and a number of Cabinet Ministers and Departmental Heads set up camp in an Aboriginal Community in Arnhem Land, near Nhulunbuy, 600 kilometres (370 mi) east of Darwin.

[97] On his August 2015 week in remote indigenous communities, Abbott again discussed constitutional recognition and became the first Prime Minister to visit the grave of land rights champion Eddie Mabo.

We'll get the budget back under control by ending Labor's waste... And we'll build the roads of the 21st century because I hope to be an infrastructure prime minister who puts bulldozers on the ground and cranes into our skies.[...]

[139] In his Budget in reply speech, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that Labor would oppose around $13 billion worth of cuts and tax hikes, including the changes to university funding.

[141] Labor and the Greens opposed the Coalition's promised abolition of carbon pricing, and the introduction of "direct action" carbon-reduction policies, but the Government secured cross bench support for the repeal of the tax in July 2014.

On 7 July, the Immigration Minister confirmed to the High Court that 41 asylum seekers on a boat intercepted west of the Cocos Islands had been returned to Sri Lanka, following an "enhanced screening process" at sea.

In his 2015 Budget speech, Hockey announced the reintroduction of Fuel Indexation to assist with funding of road-building and said: "We are rolling out the biggest infrastructure program in Australia's history, with new road and freight corridors being built right across the country".

The Age reported that the timing of the provision of funds for the East West Link, the last day of the 2013–14 financial year, was criticised by federal Auditor-General Grant Hehir as a strategy to artificially blow out the deficit of the outgoing government.

[190] Following the 2013 election, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull assumed responsibility for management of the network, and invited the Labor appointed board of NBN Co to offer their resignations and announced a strategic review of the project.

[197] In August 2015, the ABC Media Watch programme reported that a front-page of The Age newspaper "ripped into the recent war record of former SAS captain Andrew Hastie, Liberal candidate in the 2015 Canning by-election, which could be crucial to Tony Abbott's future" and found the coverage to be "both unfair and misleading", and likened it to the Hockey defamation case.

"[203] In June 2015, Abbott initiated a brief ministerial boycott of the Q&A programme, after it arranged for Zaky Mallah to ask a question of a Government minister, from its live studio audience.

Kerry O'Brien and Barrie Cassidy, hosts respectively of the ABC's flagship weekly current affairs programs Four Corners and Insiders, welcomed the replacement of Abbott by Turnbull.

And that is why the incentive-based system that we've got, the direct action policies, which are quite similar to those that president Obama has put into practice, is – that's the smart way to deal with this, a big tax is a dumb way to deal with it.After taking office in September 2013, Minister Hunt abolished the Gillard government advisory Climate Commission, stating that this move formed "part of the Coalition's plans to streamline government processes and avoid duplication of services" and that the Department of the Environment would take on its role.

The government said: "The pledge to the Green Climate Fund will facilitate private sector-led economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region with a particular focus on investment in infrastructure, energy, forestry ... and emissions reduction programmes.

[235] Legislation to implement the Emissions Reduction Fund came into effect on 13 December 2014 In 2015, the Abbott government: Documents obtained with a Freedom of Information request show that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet proposed an investigation into the Bureau of Meteorology to address claims in The Australian that the BoM was exaggerating global warming.

[239] In December 2013 Environment Minister Greg Hunt controversially approved the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Marine Park.

[241] In January 2014, Environment Minister Greg Hunt cleared the way for a controversial shark cull in Western Australia by exempting it from federal legislation designed to protect threatened species,[242] Following on from its decision to fund the Environment Defenders Office, in June 2014 the federal Liberal Party unanimously endorsed a proposal to strip charity status from environmental groups including the Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Bob Brown Foundation.

The New Colombo Plan was launched as a signature initiative of the Abbott government's foreign policy, and was aimed at enhancing the knowledge of the Indo-Pacific in Australia, by supporting Australian undergraduates studying and undertaking internships in the region.

While this is a nominal increase of $750 million compared with 2012–13, analysis by The Guardian Australia shows it represents a cut of about $1.5 billion in real terms when population growth and inflation are taken into account.

[265] In 2014, leaked discussions about the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 disaster in Ukraine had claimed Abbott wanted to send 1000 Australian soldiers to secure the site, but cabinet colleagues, including Foreign Minister Bishop talked him out of it.

[7] On 5 February, Fairfax had reported that leadership speculation was at "fever pitch" after backbench Senator Arthur Sinodinos questioned Abbott's judgement on Sky News and refused to confirm if the Prime Minister would still hold his job in a week's time.

[287][288] The Herald reported: "Thursday's breach of confidentiality is the latest in a rolling series of leaks that have hit the government this week, including Monday night's threadbare cabinet agenda to the Seven Network and the Guardian Australia, details of Tuesday's party room meeting and Wednesday's morning note"[288] On 14 September 2015, Turnbull announced that he would be challenging Abbott.

[8] In response, Abbott said that he was "dismayed by the destabilisation that's been taking place now for many, many months" and that Australia needed "strong and stable Government and that means avoiding, at all costs, Labor's revolving-door prime ministership.

[291] Turnbull dropped Abbott, Joe Hockey, Eric Abetz, Ian Macfarlane, Kevin Andrews, Michael Ronaldson and Bruce Billson from his ministry, but increased the number of cabinet ministers from 19 to 21.