Tony Abbott’s swipe at PM over Barnaby Joyce debacle

FORMER prime minister Tony Abbott has taken a veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull over his handling of the Barnaby Joyce affair, as Mr Joyce was reportedly told by his own colleagues to leave.

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FORMER prime minister Tony Abbott has waded into the public leadership stoush engulfing the Coalition Government, taking a veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull.

Speaking in Melbourne today, Mr Abbott said the Prime Minister, as leader of the Liberals, should not publicly comment on the leadership of the Nationals under Barnaby Joyce.

“The general rule I always observed was that one party doesn’t give another party public advice,” Mr Abbott said.

“If a member of parliament has something to say to another member of parliament he or she should knock on the door or pick up the phone.”

He said Australians wanted a “back to basics” approach from the Government — lowering power prices, raising wages and getting traffic moving again in cities.

“The last thing anyone wants is for politicians to be talking about themselves,” Mr Abbott said.

Tony Abbott has weighed in on the debacle. File photo

On Thursday, Mr Turnbull offered a scathing assessment of Mr Joyce’s affair with a staffer, describing his actions as a “shocking error of judgment” and causing “a world of woe”.

That provoked an angry response from Mr Joyce yesterday, who said the Prime Minister’s remarks were “inept” and “unnecessary.”

Nationals MPs have told The Australian that Mr Joyce’s position was “untenable” and demanded he step down before the next partyroom meeting on Monday or face a leadership spill.

Mr Joyce’s colleagues reportedly said his scathing rebuke of Mr Turnbull threatened to undermine the governing coalition between the Nationals and the Liberals.

One Nationals MP said: “The right action to take is for the Deputy Prime Minister to stand down. The government will be paralysed.”

Earlier today, Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald said Mr Joyce knew his actions were damaging the Government, and he should spend time on the backbench.

“Barnaby would have known it would derail the Government’s line, the Government’s focus and it really is giving Bill Shorten a free kick,” Senator Macdonald told the ABC.

“Clearly, his path is that he’s got to take a very, very low profile, I hope on the backbench for, you know, a few months.”

Labor MP Pat Conroy described the entire scenario as a “soap opera”.

“It’s a valiant defence of the indefensible,” he told ABC News.

“There’s a massive question to answer. Malcolm Turnbull said on Thursday that Barnaby needed to consider this position. That’s code for saying, I need you to resign.”

On Friday, Nationals MP Andrew Broad said that while Barnaby Joyce had made an error of judgment, his leadership of the Nationals remained safe for now.

“But I’m still waiting to see if there’s been an abuse of power. If I see that and it’s clear, then I’ll be one of the people talking about what should be the action as a result of that,” he told the ABC.