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Abbott slammed over comments on refugees

Tony Abbott has faced heavy criticism, including from prominent Catholics, after the former prime minister cited the Bible when lecturing European leaders on their response to the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Mr Abbott, in his first major speech since being replaced as Liberal leader, on Tuesday night in London argued that the key Christian tenet “to love your neighbour” was leading Europe into “catastrophic error”.

The devout Catholic, who trained as a priest, said during the annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture at London’s Guildhall that “no country or continent can open its borders to all comers without fundamentally weakening itself”.

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“This is the risk that the countries of Europe now run through misguided altruism,” he said.

The remarks, which come as fighting in Syria and Iraq continues to push hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers to Europe despite the rapid approach of winter, was rebuked by a number of prominent Catholic priests, as well as political leaders.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, was unavailable for comment, although his office referred AAP to previous comments in which he said “what we can’t do morally is look on paralysed or look away as little boys are drowned and frightened faithful struggle to scale razor wire fences”.

Retired Bishop Pat Power said he was “appalled” by Mr Abbott’s use of the Bible to preach a heard-hearted approach to the ongoing crisis.

“People will make their own judgments but that’s completely at odds with what’s at the heart of Christianity,” he told Fairfax Media.

More than 700,000 migrants have already arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, with the flow of desperate people mostly from war-torn Syria showing no signs of abating.

In Adelaide on Wednesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to be drawn on Mr Abbott’s speech.

“He has obviously had a remarkable career in public life including two years as prime minister and we owe him a great debt for that,” Mr Turnbull said.

But Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who helped arrange for Mr Abbott to give the address, said it was a “landmark” speech which had done Australia proud.

“I thought it was a really interesting speech, I thought it was a landmark speech and I think Tony Abbott did us proud last night,” Senator Bernardi told Sky News.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Europe did not need Mr Abbott lecturing them on the refugee crisis.

“As we’ve seen from the dreadful scenes in the Mediterranean to the massive border queues and the movement of literally millions of people, I’m not sure that Tony Abbott on a victory lap giving a Margaret Thatcher lecture is exactly what Europe needs to solve its problems,” he said in Sydney.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said “the only catastrophic error that Europe has made is giving Tony Abbott a platform to speak”.

-AAP

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