NSW deputy premier calls on Malcolm Turnbull to quit as PM

ONE of the country’s most senior Coalition politicians has said Malcolm Turnbull “should give Australians a Christmas gift” and quit.

NSW’s deputy premier John Barilaro has called on Malcolm Turnbull to quit as prime minister.. Picture Kym Smith

NSW’s deputy premier John Barilaro has called on Malcolm Turnbull to quit as prime minister.

The state’s Nationals leader says he has lost all hope in Mr Turnbull, describing him as “out of touch” and the reason the federal government is in disarray.

“Turnbull is the problem. The Prime Minister is the problem. He should step down and allow for a clean out of what the leadership looks like federally,” Mr Barilaro told Alan Jones on Sydney’s 2GB radio on Friday.

“Whoever takes the reins going forward needs to make sure that they put the country and its people first.”

Mr Turnbull’s claim that the Queensland election was not affected by federal issues was “a joke” and comments like that showed a lack of leadership, he said. “You’ve got a party in disarray, a coalition government in disarray and a community not unified, and that is all at the feet of the Prime Minister of Australia.

“My view is Turnbull should give Australians a Christmas gift and go before Christmas.”

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has called on the PM to quit. Picture: AAP Image/Keri Megelus

Mr Barilaro said he wasn’t speaking out to endorse Labor leader Bill Shorten, but because Australians were desperate for leadership.

Mr Turnbull brushed off the comments and denied his time was running out. He suggested the deputy premier made those comments to “ingratiate” himself with Jones and to tell him what he wants to hear.

“If that was a serious view he held, you would think he would speak to me directly, wouldn’t you?” he told Neil Mitchell on Melbourne’s 3AW radio. “If I had a view about a state leader of that kind, I would express it — if I expressed it at all — privately and face-to-face, I wouldn’t be bagging them in the media like that.”

The Prime Minister said Mr Barilaro had made similar comments a little while ago and that he called him and left a message about it, but didn’t get a call back. “He’s got my number, he can call me anytime. I’d be delighted to have a chat to him.”

Cabinet minister Mathias Cormann labelled Mr Barilaro’s comments “very unhelpful”.

“Obviously it would’ve been better if he hadn’t,” he told Sky News.