Christine Forster slams leadership betrayal as she considers a tilt at Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth
Liberal councillor and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s sister Christine Forster has slammed the Federal leadership spill as a “terrible thing to do to a sitting prime minister”.
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Liberal councillor and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s sister Christine Forster has slammed the Federal leadership spill as a “terrible thing to do to a sitting prime minister”.
The City of Sydney councillor said the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier today by his Liberal colleagues was not in the best interests of the Liberal party or the Australian people - who want politicians to behave like adults and to govern, not to be navel gazers.
Now in her third term on council, Cr Forster has been approached to consider nominating for Malcolm Turnbull’s seat in the Federal electorate of Wentworth, which he has held since 2004.
And she is considering the offer despite wishing the events of the past few days had never happened.
“It’s a terrible thing to do to unseat a sitting Prime Minister, it happened in 2015 and it was a terrible thing to do then and I still think it’s a terrible thing to do now,” Cr Forster said.
She would have firsthand understanding of the impact of the decision, given her brother Tony Abbott faced the same experience when Mr Turnbull successfully rolled him for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2015.
“(Malcolm) will be devastated, I’m sure. Becoming the Prime Minister, attaining the highest office in the land is the culmination of a life’s work. Malcolm got there by deposing my brother - I don’t think that was the right thing to do but, that said, I feel for him as a person because he will be devastated, there’s no doubt about it,” Cr Forster said.
“Losing an election and losing the prime ministership is devastating but losing the prime ministership at the hands of your own colleagues, I can only imagine would be even worse,” she said.
Despite this, the decision “must have needed to happen because it did happen,” Cr Forster said.
“There has to have been genuine concern over the leadership, we ended up with three contenders so there were three senior party members who all thought they could do a better job than Malcolm,” she said.
Cr Forster’s brother Tony Abbott, the Federal Warringah MP who sits on the back bench, is widely believed to have been one of the masterminds of the latest coup which — while successful in toppling Turnbull — failed to install coup leader Peter Dutton.
Despite both being Liberal Party stalwarts, she and her brother found themselves on opposing sides of the same sex marriage campaign late last year when Forster was a strong supporter of the Yes vote.
Cr Forster said there may be continued fallout from the leadership spill.
“Scott Morrison is now Prime Minister and we have to unite under him but I would say in a general sense I don’t think changing leaders has ever been good for government it wasn’t good for Labor when they did it, and it wasn’t good for us - look at the result of the 2016 election compared with the 2013 election,” Cr Forster said.
How does the Liberal Party come back from this?
“There’s no doubt that the public are over it, the people are over it. They want politicians to behave like adults and to govern, not to be navel gazers,” Cr Forster said.
In the end, history will be the judge but, Cr Forster said, she personally wished none of this had happened.
“I wish that 2015 hadn’t happened and I wish that this hasn’t happened because I don’t think this kind of stuff is in the best interest of the party or of the people we serve,” she said.
Despite all of this, Cr Forster said it was time to unite under Scott Morrison as the new leader of the party.
“It’s been very tumultuous obviously, it’s been very distressing for people. I think the general public think it’s been unedifying, but the result is we have a new leader of the party, a new prime minister and it’s time for us to get back to the business of governing for all Australians and focus an refocus on ensuring that we win the next election and we don’t deliver what would be an appalling governing under (Labor leader) Bill Shorten,” she said.
The people wanted the Liberal party to get on with the job of governing and continue the good work of the government, Cr Forster said.
The City of Sydney councillor, who is in her third term on council, has also been approached to consider nominating for Malcolm Turnbull’s seat in the Federal electorate of Wentworth, which he has held since 2004.
In a press conference this afternoon Mr Turnbull said he would be leaving Parliament before too long, and should he leave politics before the next general election, a by-election would be called in his seat.
Cr Forster confirmed she had been approached and that she was considering the offer — and that this isn’t the first time the option has been raised with her.
The councillor and her wife Virginia Flitcroft recently bought an apartment in Potts Point, and have lived in Surry Hills for many years.
The street on which the apartment is located comes right up to the western boundary of Wentworth and Macleay St is near the border of the eastern side of Wentworth.
“I have local credentials, nobody could argue that I’m not local,’ Cr Forster said.
The suburbs of Rushcutters Bay, Elizabeth Bay, Paddington and Darlinghurst are in both the Federal seat and the City of Sydney.
So Cr Forster could be in a good position to consider her options?
“I think so, yes,” she said.