Tony Abbott has developed more policy on the run while running off his mouth as a speech in front of a bunch of wealthy West Australian industrialists.

“There has got to be a system which encourages people to take up work where that work is available and certainly the idea of having people on the dole where there is relatively unskilled work freely available, I think the Australian public don’t like that idea very much.”

Unsurprisingly this suggestion – cutting unemployment benefits of under-30s who refuse to spend the several thousand dollars it requires to get to WA to work in a regional mining community – has created a bit of controversy. Abbott’s basically declared that he doesn’t want the nice people vote or the lazy dole bludger vote.

It is clear where this policy thoughtbubble came from:

David Cameron’s policy is to cut benefits for “dole bludgers”:

This is our new welfare contract: do the right thing and we will back you all the way. But fail to take responsibility – and the free ride is over.

It’s fairly clear that Abbott and the Liberals are aping the UK’s neo-Thatcherite Tory Party on more than just their website.

I wonder how much more Tory policy will be carbon-copied by Abbott before the next Federal Election?