Peta Credlin’s most damaging role was creating distorted view that Tony Abbott was safe

SHE was once regarded as the most powerful figure in the Abbott Government, but who will touch her now?

ANALYSIS

TONY Abbott’s warrior queen Peta Credlin is certain to be a casualty of his loss to Malcolm Turnbull and will face accusations she caused her boss’s downfall.

Incoming Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will not have her in his office.

His Liberal deputy Julie Bishop has not had a close relationship with Ms Credlin for months and will not plead for her retention.

And there will be questions about Mr Turnbull’s relationship with her husband, Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane.

Mr Abbott has rated his chief of staff the most fierce political warrior he knew and he refused to break up their partnership when colleagues and commentators complained of her gatekeeper style. In his concession speech this afternoon, he personally thanked her for her efforts and slammed those who had “unfairly maligned” her in the past.

Ms Credlin is a charming and fun person socially but has been depicted, with considerable accuracy, as a harsh and tyrannical manager of Tony Abbott’s interests. She intervened in the smallest decisions by ministers, including their staff selection and media appearances.

It was Ms Credlin who enforced the ban on ministers appearing on ABC’s program Q&A until Mr Abbott was happy with changes by network executives. It was generally considered a pointless campaign against a single ABC program but was typical of the take-no-prisoners style of Ms Credlin.

PM Tony Abbott confers with Peta Credlin during Question Time.

Tony Abbott was aware of her unpopularity within the Government and in February bartered off contact with her to help placate Liberal MPs.

He told them if they wanted to avoid his chief of staff they could send him text messages. And the woman who was occasionally reprimanded for barracking from the advisers’ box on the floor of the House of Representatives disappeared from public view for a while.

But she continued to sit in on cabinet meetings, which irked ministers.

Perhaps her most damaging role was in keeping Mr Abbott in a small and distorting political ecosystem which lulled him into thinking he was safe and even widely applauded.

Certainly yesterday’s strike by Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop took them both by surprise.

Ms Credlin was seen as the chief obstacle preventing highly experienced former John Howard adviser and now NSW Liberal director Tony Nutt returning to Canberra to help the Abbott office.

And she was also the centre of complaints about Mr Abbott’s failure to consult colleagues.

This became a crisis when he took to Cabinet ministers a scantily explained proposal to take citizenship from Australians linked to terrorism. He had consulted only two people — Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Ms Credlin.

She was also one of the few to be let in on his captain’s pick to revive Australian knighthoods.

Defenders of Ms Credlin argue that while she allowed Mr Abbott to make serious mistakes, you ought to see the ideas she stopped him making.

However, there was the additional concern of a potential conflict of interest created by her marriage to Brian Loughnane, the most senior Liberal Party organisational operative.

Tony Abbott (second from right) with Peter Dutton, Peta Credlin, Stephen Galilee and Brian Loughnane.

There were two basic questions: Would Mr Loughnane ever advise Mr Abbott to sack his chief of staff if that was considered necessary to protect the Government? Would she recommend ignoring advice from party central office?

Mr Loughnane is a thorough professional who gets on with Mr Turnbull and they are likely to work together. But there would have to be a few awkward moments, even if only at the start.

However, it seems certain the incoming PM will have a wider circle of advisers than Mr Abbott, including from highly qualified sources who could not get past — or get on with — Ms Credlin.