Prime Minister’s backers spend weekend hitting phones to shore up his leadership
MALCOLM Turnbull’s key backers spent the weekend urging Liberals not to turn on him as The Daily Telegraph can reveal top contender Peter Dutton assured the PM in a private call he didn’t want to challenge — but also didn’t rule it out.
NSW
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MALCOLM Turnbull’s key backers spent the weekend urging Liberals not to turn on the Prime Minister.
The rearguard action comes as The Daily Telegraph can reveal top contender, Peter Dutton, assured Mr Turnbull in a private call he did not want to challenge — but wouldn’t rule it out.
As Cabinet met the PM in a policy crisis meeting last night as part of a bid to stave off a conservative rebellion, Mr Dutton is being pressured by marginal seat MPs to challenge for the leadership.
The Daily Telegraph has learned that in a private phone conversation after news exploded that he was considering a leadership tilt, Mr Dutton told Mr Turnbull he did not want to run against him — but he did not categorically rule it out.
During the phone call, it is understood the men also spoke about the reasons for the level of anger from the Liberal conservative base.
Mr Turnbull’s backers spent the weekend shoring up numbers for his leadership, with moderate leader Christopher Pyne and government whip Rowan Ramsey arguing there should be no change of prime minister, on the basis of “stability”.
Mr Pyne is understood to have told the MPs that Mr Turnbull is popular with the public and has a good story to tell about a growing economy.
Some MPs, however, were less than impressed with his criticism of Mr Dutton during the calls and messages.
“The Prime Minister has had Pyne out trying to bag Dutton to colleagues. He was sent out to gauge the temperature, check Malcolm’s support and make the case for no change,” one MP said.
As Cabinet met for a crisis meeting on energy policy last night, Mr Dutton was still seriously considering a challenge with a growing number of marginal seat MPs urging him to take action.
They claim the election is unwinnable and lament that the Turnbull government’s problems are broader than the NEG.
Mr Dutton has told those colleagues he has not made a decision and will wait to see the reaction to Mr Turnbull’s NEG reset.
Senior conservative Mathias Cormann is understood to have been instrumental in negotiating for Mr Dutton to send a tweet on Saturday morning that stated he still supported Mr Turnbull as PM.
Last night, Mr Turnbull called his Cabinet to dinner at a private dining room at Parliament House, where he presented a “peace plan” or reset on the National Energy Guarantee, which involved setting new, severe penalties for energy companies that refused to lower power bills. “He’s trying to offer this peace plan up and hope it settles down,” a senior Liberal said.
The crisis dinner kicked off a week in Parliament that has the potential to be highly volatile, with company tax cuts legislation being debated today and the Coalition party room discussing the National Energy Guarantee tomorrow.
Mr Turnbull’s supporters are worried a backbencher like Kevin Andrews could move a motion for a leadership spill to blow open the leadership issue.
While Mr Turnbull’s backers say they are confident he has the support of the overwhelming majority of MPs, they fear if Mr Dutton stood as a candidate, he may garner sufficient numbers to mortally wound the PM.
“There is a disconnect between Cabinet and the backbench,” a senior Liberal conservative said.
“There are a number on the backbench that argue this (NEG reset) is too little, too late and it’s as much about Malcolm’s obsession with climate change and his inability to have the discipline to keep a message for any longer than 12 hours.”
A senior Liberal source told The Daily Telegraph any change to Mr Dutton would not be in the best interest of the government.
“He’s a conservative Queensland policeman who will not resonate anywhere else in Australia and who has no experience to do what’s required to be the PM,” the source said.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said the NEG reset showed Mr Turnbull was not running the government with proper process.
“This is no way to run a government and the Prime Minister’s problem now, as in 2009, is that he wants to form a unity ticket with the Labor Party on climate policy and that’s completely unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Abbott said Mr Turnbull’s first problem was to misrepresent the party room’s position for the NEG as one of overwhelming support.
“Second, he gives the legislation to the Labor Party but not to the Coalition backbench.
“Third, having said on Tuesday that the targets must be entrenched in legislation, he up-ends this on Friday and says they can only be in regulation to appease Victoria and get Labor onside.”