Malcolm Turnbull is looking more and more like the political reincarnation of Tony Abbott
Look who’s back: Malcolm Turnbull is looking more and more like the political reincarnation of Tony Abbott as he stands accused of briefing against Scott Morrison.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Prime Minister said Turnbull won’t represent Australia again
- Malcolm Turnbull will appear on Q&A to discuss politics
Malcolm Turnbull stands accused of being the new Tony Abbott.
Government ministers anticipate that from now until the federal election, he will do to Scott Morrison what he did to Dave Sharma during the Wentworth by-election.
That is, he will fail to genuinely help the Coalition while his supporters leak against Morrison, with the result being the total destruction of the Government.
Government ministers are fuming. They say no former prime minister has left their party in the lurch like Turnbull has the Liberal Party.
“He’ll try to kill our chances at the general election to make his position look better,” one senior Liberal told me.
“Not even Rudd or Gillard has carried on like he has. You don’t put the government to a by-election hoping they’ll win it.”
And the anger at senior levels of the Morrison Government towards the former Prime Minister is likely to intensify after his QandA appearance this coming Thursday.
According to those close to him, Turnbull does not intend to make regular public remarks after his ABC performance, but will not shy away from correcting the record if he feels an untruthful statement has been made by Morrison or another minister. He does not seek to destroy the joint, his backers insist.
However even setting the record straight will dominate the news agenda and destabilise Morrison’s Government, as it did yesterday.
This will have a similar effect in flaming the Liberal party’s internal divisions as Abbott’s policy interventions had during Turnbull’s own prime ministership. It will undermine Morrison’s authority and, ultimately, destroy the slim chance he has of beating Bill Shorten.
Already, Turnbull’s correction of the record yesterday cast Morrison as being loose with the truth or, at worst, a liar.
The reality is, the tensions between Morrison and Turnbull have been simmering for weeks. Neither would publicly admit it, reluctant to ignite a war.
Morrison was furious with Turnbull for the Tasmanian GST leak dating back to his early days as PM and for point-blank refusing to help the Wentworth campaign.
Morrison’s camp also blame Turnbull supporters for the damaging leaks during the Wentworth by-election — from the religious freedoms report to the WhatsApp messages sent to Marise Payne by her Indonesian counterpart.
His anger was greatly exacerbated by Turnbull’s public commentary at the Oceans conference in Bali where he publicly disagreed with Morrison’s decision to review moving Australia’s embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. Turnbull could have simply reiterated the position of the Morrison government — that it was under review — or not spoken about it at all.
Morrison was ropeable.
Yet, Turnbull supporters say it was a mess of Morrison’s own making and that it was the PM who chose to send Turnbull to the Oceans conference where a bilateral with Indonesian President Joko Widodo was scheduled.
Turnbull claims he faithfully took instructions over the phone from Morrison before the meeting. The bilateral meeting lasted for about 40 minutes and its focus was Indonesia’s concerns over whether Australia would relocate its embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, where Turnbull repeated Morrison’s message no decision had been made and it was simply under review.
Turnbull’s view is understood to be that he has been incredibly restrained, declining to comment publicly on politics or the leadership since he was rolled in late August. But, after an official bilateral when asked directly why he did not move the embassy to Jerusalem, he felt he had no option but to comment.
During the meeting, Widodo is understood to have made it clear to Turnbull that if Morrison moved the embassy, he would retaliate, indicating it was a significant domestic issue for him, with an election in April next year.
If the embassy was moved or the issue was not resolved, it would become a political competition as to whether Widodo or his opponents can punish Australia the most, perhaps even withdrawing their co-operation with turning back the boats. While Turnbull saw the trip as a favour for Morrison in helping to smooth over diplomatic relations with Indonesia, Morrison viewed it as an “olive branch” to Turnbull.
He has also viewed as an “olive branch” the fact he acquiesced to Turnbull’s request for a senior adviser position above what former PMs are entitled to.
All other former prime ministers, including Hawke, Keating, Howard, Gillard and Rudd get a taxpayer-funded adviser, assistant adviser and executive assistant funded by the taxpayer.
Instead of an executive assistant, Turnbull asked Morrison if he could have a senior adviser, band two, position granted to him.
Morrison has repeatedly refused to respond to questions about whether he agreed to Turnbull’s request.
But I have confirmed, through parliamentary documents, that he did. And Turnbull will have this extra senior adviser working for him, who is paid in the order of $150,000, until 30th August, 2019.
Morrison has been overly generous towards Turnbull, in the hope this would be reciprocated. He has felt betrayed.
Morrison’s comments on Alan Jones were deliberate and clear. He praised Gillard and Howard, but not Turnbull. He said the former PM would not be going overseas again.
And Turnbull didn’t take long to fire back.
This war is going to get ugly.
And, somehow, Turnbull seems to have the upper-hand, because Morrison is fearful of the damage his predecessor can wreak through further leaks or public commentary.
And he has a full hour on QandA next Thursday to make life very uncomfortable for Morrison.
The question is, does Turnbull have an obligation to not cause problems for the government ahead of the federal election?
While he may argue the party tore him down and he owes them nothing, it’s also a repeat of his own conduct towards Abbott. And who can forget how often Turnbull complained grumpily about Abbott’s sniping and undermining when he was leader?
To turn around an old phrase, for Malcolm Turnbull it’s very much a case of die by the sword, live by the sword.