Knives out for Turnbull after election ‘disaster’

A LIBERAL senator has slammed Malcolm Turnbull, saying he was “happier to be pictured with Waleed Aly than with the conservatives”.

CONSERVATIVE Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has slammed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over his election performance and called on him to examine his “contribution to this disaster”.

In stinging comments on Adelaide radio this morning, the South Australian senator said Mr Turnbull was “more happy to be pictured with Waleed Aly than with the conservative base of the Liberal Party”.

“These sorts of things drove people away from the Liberal Party,” he told 5AA of Mr Turnbull’s controversial interfaith dinner during the campaign.

“We have seen a significant decline in the stature of the Liberal Party in the public square; not just recently but over recent time and it’s time that we held people to account for that.

“So, people should examine their conscience, think about their contribution to this disaster and … I would prevail upon them to do the right thing.”

Asked specifically about Mr Turnbull, Senator Bernardi said: “In the end, he should be asking himself if he did the Liberal Party a service or a disservice.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hosts an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan at Kirribilli House in Sydney on June 16. Guests included broadcaster Waleed Aly and his wife Susan Carland. Picture: AAP Image/Fairfax Media Pool, Andrew Meares

The comments come as the Coalition reels from a weak performance at Saturday’s election, where it may be forced to cobble together a minority government.

Senator Bernardi, a Tony Abbott supporter from the Liberal Party’s right wing, said the Coalition had gone down the same ruinous path that the Labor Party took during the tumultuous Rudd-Gillard years.

“We made a decision, which was incorrect in my view, to change leaders in the first term and the transaction cost of that has been felt at this election,” Senator Bernardi said.

“I think the conservative wing of the Liberal Party were very, very disciplined. We offered nothing but support to the Prime Minister. We provided advice behind the scenes … That advice was seldom listened to, I have to say.”

Scathing comments … Senator Cory Bernardi.

Senator Bernardi has been particularly critical of Liberal pollster Mark Textor, accusing him of ignoring the party’s base.

@TextorMark Hey Tex, I'm thinking that Conservatives actually do matter.

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) July 2, 2016

“I think that ultimately we were out-campaigned,” he told 5AA.

“One of the quotes I read on the weekend was ‘the Liberals campaign like it’s a lawn bowls gathering whereas the Labor Party campaign like it’s a dogfight’,” he said.

“It just says that you cannot turn your back on your party base and this is something I’ve consistently warned about for many, many years and we had our chief pollster Mark Textor say that ‘the base doesn’t matter, they’ve got nowhere to go, we’ll pick up more votes in the centre’. We had the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, say Pauline Hanson has no place in Australian politics and yet she … reflects the concerns of many, many people. Whether she does that well or badly is up to others to judge, but you cannot dismiss the fact that so many people are worried about the things that she’s talking about.”

Under pressure from within … Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Chris Pavlich

Senator Bernardi is not the only political insider to question Mr Turnbull’s future.

Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt reiterated his call for Mr Turnbull to resign

“Tony Abbott must return as leader of the shattered Liberals after Saturday’s election disaster,” he wrote in a column today in the Herald Sun.

“This election result has been a near-total catastrophe for the Liberals, who have been left without a mandate, platform, unity, honour or real power after letting Turnbull hijack their party last year.”

Mr Turnbull said on Sunday that the expectation on him, as Prime Minister, was “to get on with the job”.

“My absolute focus as Prime Minister is on delivering for Australians the certainty, the stability, the leadership that they need and they expect from their government and their parliament,” he said.