Sharri Markson: Ousted Malcolm’s snipes could destroy his own legacy
So much for letting the new guy get on with the job. Since the spill, Malcolm Turnbull has been briefing against Scott Morrison and trying to tear down the government.
Opinion
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MALCOLM Turnbull complained bitterly for three years about Tony Abbott, claiming he was sniping and depriving the government of clear air, but Scott Morrison’s clear air has lasted barely days.
Today marks 21 days since the spill that put him in the prime ministership and while he and his family are still finding the light switches at Kirribilli House, Morrison has already been subject to the same sort of wrecking and undermining that Turnbull himself whined about.
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I can reveal that Turnbull has repeatedly made it clear to Liberal MPs, and to those closest to Morrison, that the new Prime Minister should go straight to a federal election.
His view, from New York, is that Morrison’s prime ministership is illegitimate.
He claims Morrison is only prime minister because of the eligibility questions swirling around Peter Dutton.
Morrison has, sensibly, resisted going straight to the polls.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of a new-look government getting on with the job, Turnbull is now trying to force the issue and facilitate the downfall of the Liberal government.
There have been leaks designed to damage Morrison from Turnbull’s closest confidants and open hostility on Twitter from the former prime minister himself.
Morrison is understood to firmly believe the leaks are from Turnbull’s closest supporters, such is the disclosure of intimate detail that would only be known to the former prime minister or his most senior advisers.
“He’s concerned about Malcolm. He can’t have Malcolm burn the village,” one Morrison supporter said.
“The Tasmania leak was a direct attack on Morrison. It wasn’t about getting square with the terrorists. It was about destroying the government because he doesn’t want it to succeed.”
Turnbull’s lack of self-awareness around his own hypocrisy is stunning.
His conduct is infinitely worse than Tony Abbott’s because Abbott did not try to destroy the entire government — just the leader, who had done the same to him.
But Turnbull is actively trying to tear the government down, first by quitting Parliament and forcing a by-election in Wentworth and now by seeking to side with Labor to refer Dutton to the High Court.
Both moves could deprive Morrison of his governing majority.
He has the suicide vest on and he’s trying to blow up the entire show.
An election now would mean a certain Bill Shorten win.
The early signs are that Morrison is an effective politician. He’s strategic, on-message and understands mainstream Australia. Voters can relate to him.
But he needs time, which he most likely won’t have enough of, to gain traction and prove himself to Australians and develop his own record.
And Turnbull is intent on robbing him of his chance to beat Labor.
The very worst of Turnbull’s behaviours, which had long been whispered about by his enemies, have now been exposed for all to see.
Turnbull’s demand that MPs cross the floor to refer Dutton to the High Court over questions concerning his eligibility under Section 44 is shocking.
“(Turnbull’s) badgering and bullying everyone,” one senior Liberal figure said.
Turnbull is at risk of turning into a Trumpian character, throwing bombs on Twitter, designed to wreck the government. His treachery cannot be overstated.
It is not Dutton and the so-called “terrorists” Turnbull is now hurting — it is the entire Liberal Party, the entire government and his loyal former Treasurer.
It was only three weeks ago that Morrison threw his arm around Turnbull at a press conference and declared he supported his leader.
It was an act of loyalty towards Turnbull, while others were dropping like flies and it damaged him in the leadership contest.
On Sunday, August 19, before the week of leadership spills, Morrison is understood to have warned Turnbull not to call on a spill, telling him it would weaken his position and was not something that John Howard would ever have done.
Spilling the leadership, to prove he had the support of the party room, was something Turnbull was contemplating in response to Dutton’s leadership manoeuvring.
“Had he listened to Scott, he wouldn’t be in this mess,” one source familiar with the discussions told me.
Turnbull’s behaviour now, towards someone who was loyal to him, is reprehensible.
Turnbull likes to use the word chutzpah. Well, while blowing up the show, the former PM is trying to secure an ongoing taxpayer-funded senior adviser to assist him, possibly upgrading his driver to do this.
In addition, he risks entirely destroying his own legacy as prime minister.
If he does not remove the vindictiveness and stop his campaign to send the government to the polls, every considerable policy success from his time in government will be lost.
With each attempt to destroy the Morrison government, he is ruining his hard-earned achievements. No one will care about his childcare or media reforms.
No one will remember he passed company tax cuts for small business or the new GST carve-up for the states.
They will only recall that he lost the top job, spat the dummy and quit his seat of Wentworth, thus depriving the government of its one-seat majority, before fleeing to New York, from where he set about wrecking the joint.
He will become Turnbull the terminator.
His bitterness and fury, reaching across continents and seas, must be contained before it is too late to recover his own considerable legacy, and before he delivers a Bill Shorten prime ministership eight months ahead of schedule.