‘Shut it’ Christopher Pyne told, as Libs wage war
UPDATE: Tony Abbott says he’s in no hurry to leave public life because Australia needs less compromise from government. His comments came as PM Malcolm Turnbull insisted the Liberal party was “united”.
NSW
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TONY Abbott says he is in no hurry to leave public life because Australia needs strong conservative voices and less compromise from government.
The former prime minister’s comments came as his successor Malcolm Turnbull insisted the Liberal party was “harmonious”.
Leaked comments by cabinet minister Christopher Pyne have re-opened old wounds from a leadership contest between Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott 21 months ago.
Mr Pyne, one of Mr Abbott’s most senior lieutenants at the time, told moderate faction colleagues at a late-night function last week he had voted for Mr Turnbull in every Liberal leadership ballot.
That was news to Mr Abbott.
He accused Mr Pyne of not being fair dinkum, saying it was incredibly disappointing to discover his loyalty was never there.
Senior Liberal MPs have also issued a warning to Mr Turnbull that he needs to change course urgently, and resist moving further to the left, “or face certain defeat”.
Mr Turnbull today distanced himself from the spat, rejecting suggestions his party was a “tinderbox” about to erupt.
But the prime minister admitted people in politics could get scratchy with each other, which was just human nature.
“The party room is very harmonious, very united,” he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, noting Mr Abbott was not a minister in his government.
“He’s one member in the party room.”
However, Mr Abbott said in making compromises to get legislation through parliament “the war doesn’t actually end”.
“The battleground just shifts and in the meantime principles have become negotiable and the whole political spectrum has moved in the wrong direction,” Mr Abbott said.
Mr Abbott said it was important for conservative voices to be heard.
“I’m in no hurry to leave public life because we need strong liberal conservative voices now, more than ever,” he said.
The right arm of the Liberal Party has flexed its muscles in the wake of revelations Mr Pyne boasted that the Liberal left had overtaken the party, and same-sex marriage would be introduced “sooner than everyone thinks”.
Mr Pyne’s remarks at a soiree on Friday night have inflamed a widening factional division at the most senior ranks of the Turnbull government, where there are festering concerns that under Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, the Coalition was becoming a solid Labor government.
Senior Liberals have expressed concerns to The Daily Telegraph over the past fortnight about the proposed Clean Energy Target, upsetting the Liberal base through Gonski 2.0 and about a high-spending and high-taxing federal Budget that one described as “a wretched document”.
“In essence we’re bleeding votes to One Nation across the country and going further to the left is just going to put us into more trouble,” one senior Liberal MP said.
“We’ve got to focus on the issues which are directly relevant to everyday Australians and not be distracted by topics like same-sex marriage.
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“We either correct or face certain defeat.”
One minister said Mr Turnbull needed to distance himself from Mr Pyne, and said the South Australian powerbroker “should not be someone who is at the centre of the action”.
The minister said Mr Pyne’s leaked recording was the latest in a long line of events that had led colleagues to believe he was a “huge drag on our vote”.
“Every time he speaks publicly on television or radio, we lose votes,” he said.
The minister pointed to Mr Pyne’s performance during his time in federal politics.
“He is the senior South Australian who has basically overseen the crumbling of our voters in SA, losing seats at the last election even with $90 billion in pork barrelling,” he said.
“He has been white-anting his supposed closest friend in politics and he has been comprehensively outplayed by Tony Burke tactically. As Leader of the House, we’ve lost votes on the floors of Parliament.
“In 24 years in Parliament, what is one policy legacy that this man has?”
But two Cabinet ministers stepped in to defend Mr Pyne, with one saying that Mr Pyne’s mistake was not a hanging offence.
“Pyne made an error of judgment but not fatal. The party needs to move on and concentrate on issues that are important to Liberal supporters,” he said.
“Pyne is an effective Leader of the House and is hard-hitting in an important portfolio.”
A conservative Cabinet minister also said he supported Mr Pyne: “He’s a good minister and an excellent Leader of the House, and there’s few people equipped to do his job in the House as well as he does.”
Mr Pyne declined to comment on the attack by some of his ministerial colleagues.
“I support marriage equality and if Labor had supported the plebiscite, it would now be a reality. The government has no plans to alter the policy,” Mr Pyne tweeted on Monday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull moved to immediately disown the comments made by Mr Pyne that same-sex marriage would be introduced “sooner than everyone thinks”.
Mr Turnbull said gay marriage would only be law once the Australian public had voted on the issue.
“As far as the same-sex marriage issue, our policy is very clear, it has not changed, we have no plans to change it,” he said.
“The ball is in Bill Shorten’s court. If he wants Australians to agree to gay marriage, then he should agree to the plebiscite and let everyone have their say.”
Those defending Mr Pyne described his remarks as “idiotic” and “careless”, but said it was also common knowledge that the moderate faction was looking for ways to reintroduce gay marriage without a plebiscite.
Mr Pyne was recorded making the remarks at a soiree titled the Black Hand Reception, which was held at Cherry Bar at The Star for the moderate faction MPs. The mood in the room was ebullient.
At the after-party, Attorney-General George Brandis also delivered a speech about the history of the moderate faction, while moderate powerbroker Michael Photios spoke about how the moderate faction had been almost wiped out too but had now made an extraordinary comeback.
Attendees at the function included federal MP Trent Zimmerman, Innovation Minister Matt Kean, federal MP for Banks David Coleman and City of Sydney councillor Christine Forster, who is Tony Abbott’s sister.
The Minister for Defence Industry was recorded making explosive remarks about how the left-faction was now running the Liberal Party at an afterparty following the federal Liberal Council gala dinner on Friday, at which the former CIA director and retired General David Petraeus spoke.
“Friends, we are in the winner’s circle but we have to deliver a couple of things and one of those we’ve got to deliver before too long is marriage equality in this country,” Mr Pyne says in the tape, which was broadcast on Andrew Bolt’s Sky News program.
“We’re going to get it. I think it might even be sooner than everyone thinks. And your friends in Canberra are working on that outcome.”
In the tape, Mr Pyne also celebrated the success of the left division of the Liberal Party, which now has MPs in the country’s most powerful roles of Prime Minister and NSW Premier.
“Two years ago ... Malcolm Turnbull was the communications minister and now he’s the PM,” Mr Pyne said.
“So I would say that our fortunes are pretty good at the moment. And most of your senior Cabinet ministers — George Brandis, Marise Payne, yours truly — quite a few of us are very senior ministers in a Turnbull government.
“Now there was a time when people said it wouldn’t happen, but George and I kept the faith. We voted for Malcolm Turnbull in every ballot he’s ever been in.”
— with AAP
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