Some of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's most controversial speeches have been brushed from Coalition history since the election, including a 2009 speech backing a carbon tax, and a 2004 speech in which he describes abortion as ''a question of the mother's convenience''.
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During Mr Abbott's 2009 carbon tax speech, in which he described himself as a ''climate change realist'', he said he doubted climate change was man-made, saying ''we can't conclusively say'' man-made carbon dioxide emissions contributed to climate change.
But he went on to say: ''If Australia is greatly to reduce its carbon emissions, the price of carbon-intensive products should rise … a new tax would be the intelligent sceptic's way to deal with minimising emissions because it would be much easier than a property right to reduce or to abolish should the justification for it change.''
When he was in opposition, the speeches were posted on Mr Abbott's website, tonyabbott.com.au. But since the election, that website has been redirected to liberal.org.au, which only archives material back to July 2010, the month before the previous election.
Despite Mr Abbott becoming opposition leader on December 1, 2009, all his speeches and media statements before July 2010 have disappeared. And at least two recent transcripts have also been expunged from the public record.
They include an interview on Sky with Chris Kenny in which Mr Abbott vowed to lift foreign aid - a position he later reversed - and a speech to the conservative Institute of Public Affairs.
In March, Mr Abbott was quizzed about whether he would heed the advice of former finance minister Nick Minchin, who said the Coalition could save billions of dollars by freezing the growth of foreign aid.
Mr Abbott said: ''Our policy and that of the [then-Labor] government is to lift foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national [income] … It does remain our commitment … we are a generous people, we don't want to be niggardly in respect of our poorer neighbours.''
Five months later, the Coalition said it would cut foreign aid growth over the forward estimates, saving $4.5 billion.
In April he gave a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs decrying the ''great Australian silence'' about its Western heritage.
''There is a new version of the great Australian silence, this time about the Western canon, the literature, the poetry, the music, the history and above all the faith without which our culture and our civilisation is unimaginable,'' Mr Abbott said.
The Government's Direct Action policy, the cornerstone of its climate change policy, is not on the liberal.org.au site, despite being on the earlier page. It has also disappeared from Environment Minister Greg Hunt's website, although a 2010 version of the policy remains available on Mr Hunt's website.
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said: "The Liberal Party website is being updated to provide a single website to access media releases, speeches and policy documents released prior to the election of the Coalition government."
Since 1996, the National Library of Australia's PANDORA system has archived websites and pages, including political material.
Since then it has collected content from more than 50 elections, from local government to federal campaign, and has retained all the pages formerly on tonyabbott.com.au.
