Malcolm Turnbull refuses pleas to support Libs’ Wentworth candidate
MALCOLM Turnbull has refused desperate entreaties from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and senior Cabinet ministers to step in and express support for Wentworth by-election candidate Dave Sharma in the campaign’s final days.
NSW
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MALCOLM Turnbull has refused desperate entreaties from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and senior Cabinet ministers to step in and express support for Wentworth by-election candidate Dave Sharma in the campaign’s final days.
As the Liberal Party has grown increasingly panicked about their ability to hold on to the safe Liberal seat, Mr Morrison, Christopher Pyne and senior party figures, have pleaded with Mr Turnbull, who held it since 2004, to express public support for Mr Sharma, such as writing a letter to voters.
To their immense frustration, Mr Turnbull has refused to assist and is understood to have argued that his involvement would be a distraction that would harm, rather than help, Mr Sharma.
His view is that it would remind voters about his removal as prime minister.
The Daily Telegraph understands Mr Turnbull said if he was going to write a letter of support for Mr Sharma he would have to include the fact that he was cut down by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
Instead, the former prime minister left New York yesterday for an additional few days of holiday.
Senior Liberals say his destination is likely to be in Singapore where his son Alex lives, before his return to Sydney on Monday, when Saturday’s by-election will be done and dusted.
Since he became prime minister, Mr Morrison has been in frequent contact with Mr Turnbull and was among those who asked him to help out in Wentworth, which remains crucial for a governing majority.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “No comment.”
Mr Pyne, the Defence Minister and an ally to the former PM, rang Mr Turnbull on Tuesday to ask him to help the campaign.
Mr Pyne did not want to comment on the nature of his private conversations but said Mr Turnbull did not support his son Alex’s position that voters should kick out the Liberals.
“Malcolm wants Dave Sharma to win Wentworth because he will be a future cabinet minister in Government,” Mr Pyne said.
Senior Liberal strategists insist Wentworth is likely to fall to high-profile independent candidate, Dr Kerryn Phelps.
They say misleading media reports that the government wanted to give schools the right to expel gay students along with a video spray by Alex Turnbull have both been devastating for the Liberal campaign.
Former foreign minister Julie Bishop did not help with the Wentworth campaign until a visit to the eastern suburbs seat on Sunday. She has recorded a robo-call supporting Mr Sharma that the party originally had hoped Mr Turnbull would record.
When his former colleagues implored him to help, Mr Turnbull expressed his position that he is not in public life anymore and the more he is in the media, the worse it is for Mr Sharma.
However, he insisted to them that he did not support his son’s intervention in the campaign.
Apart from posting a video, Alex Turnbull has sent tweets urging Wentworth voters to protest the overthrow of his father along with the Liberal Party’s climate change policies by casting a protest vote at the by-election.
Yesterday Alex urged support for Dr Phelps and the Greens above Mr Sharma.