But Abbott warned to stay strong and united "the Liberal party cannot take the base for granted and must convincingly argue for its values and principles".
The UK chancellor George Osborne's recent introduction of a "national living wage" will take the base rate to $11.15, rising to $13.93 by 2020.
Solar power alone will not take the base to net zero energy, Mr. Tomlinson said, so he is considering a range of other technologies, including wind turbines, geothermal wells and a plant that would convert garbage into energy.
Yet army intelligence knew as far back as mid-December that the Tigers were determined to take the base, and presumably passed on this information to the army's high command.
That relationship broke down last year when the then prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, broke a campaign promise to take the base off Okinawa as part of an ill-fated attempt to reduce Japan's military dependence on the US.
An equally large problem, political experts say, is the fact that Nago was the only community that Tokyo could persuade to take the base, the sprawling Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, now situated in the middle of a crowded Okinawan city, Ginowan.
