Tony Abbott is back at the centre of Liberal Party politics.

The former prime minister has been elected unopposed as federal Liberal Party president – a role that sounds administrative, but carries real political weight at a moment of deep trouble for the Coalition.

The Liberals are watching voters drift to One Nation, while Abbott argues the answer is to take the fight directly to Labor. But his return sharpens a deeper question inside the party about whether the Liberals can rebuild by reviving the politics of the Abbott era, or whether that only deepens the crisis they’re trying to escape.

Today, press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno on Abbott’s comeback, the future of the Liberal Party and how the government is trying to turn the opposition’s crisis into a test of its own authority.

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