Ideal climate for a fresh start under a lucky man of (direct) action ABOUT 4pm on Thursday, November 26, 2009, Tony Abbott attended a private meeting that generated a tectonic shift in Australian politics and culminates today with him winning his way to the Lodge. Over the space of a few minutes a tenuous bipartisan consensus on climate policy was broken, setting in train a series of unpredictable consequences. The meeting was dramatic and significant but there was no way to foretell how its aftershocks would shape events.