Liberals play blame game over Wentworth loss

MALCOLM Turnbull has arrived back in Australia today. Meanwhile, the party he used to lead is viciously turning on itself.

AS THE Liberal Party’s hopes of a dramatic comeback win in Wentworth fade, it is turning on itself.

The conservative side of politics is split between those who blame former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for the defeat and those who say it’s the Liberal Party’s own fault for knifing him.

Mr Turnbull arrived back in Australia this morning.

Just arrived back in Australia with former PM @TurnbullMalcolm and his wife Lucy on the same flight. I think there will be a few people (like the press) waiting to meet him!! #auspol #Wentwothvotes pic.twitter.com/jecpwoIBTc

— Stephen Fenech (@StephenFenech) October 21, 2018

#BREAKING: @TurnbullMalcolm has returned to his Sydney home as the Liberal party is set to lose his former seat of Wentworth. #9Today pic.twitter.com/lXPadxW0tt

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) October 21, 2018

"Malcolm Turnbull has arrived back in Australia after the Liberal Party's by-election loss in his former seat of Wentworth." pic.twitter.com/SOQPBxCAHY

— Alex Anastassiou (@alexanasta_) October 21, 2018

The former prime minister’s critics have seized on his conspicuous silence in the lead-up to Saturday’s by-election. He said nothing in support of Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, save for a single tweet when Mr Sharma first won preselection back in September.

Mr Turnbull rebuffed pleas to intervene from senior figures inside the government, including Scott Morrison. The Australian reports Mr Sharma called Mr Turnbull himself on Thursday night in a desperate last-ditch attempt to secure a public endorsement.

His final cry for help was rejected.

“I was in touch with him regularly throughout the campaign and look, whatever he was willing to provide was helpful,” Mr Sharma told Sky News last night.

“Whatever more he would have been willing to provide would have been even more helpful, no doubt.”

Mr Turnbull held Wentworth with a massive margin of 17.7 per cent before he quit parliament after losing the Liberal leadership.

The current vote count has independent candidate Kerryn Phelps leading Mr Sharma by 1616 ballots.

Thousands of postal votes will arrive before the final deadline on November 2, and the Liberals are currently winning them at a rate of about 64 per cent, so that margin is likely to narrow — but not by enough to change the result.

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Some of the criticism of Mr Turnbull, like the carefully chosen words of Mr Morrison yesterday, is subtle.

“I will be honest about it. Those approaches were made. They were even made by Dave himself,” he said of the pleas to Mr Turnbull.

“But what impact they would have had, ultimately, is for others to judge.”

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce was far more blunt, saying Mr Turnbull had resigned from parliament and caused the by-election “because he was sulking”.

“I could have done the same thing myself, shat on the place and left but I didn’t,” Mr Joyce said.

He said it would have taken very little effort from Mr Turnbull to potentially swing the result.

“That’s all he had to say: ‘Please vote for Dave Sharma.’ Five words. He owned an IT company. I think he could have managed that.”

But for everyone blaming Mr Turnbull, there is somebody sticking up for him.

“Once you hand voters a baseball bat, you can hardly be surprised if they use it,” Veterans’ Affairs Minister Darren Chester told ABC News Breakfast this morning.

“They sent us a very strong message. It’s a pretty simple message. They didn’t like what we did here in Canberra.”

The panellists on Insiders yesterday said the former prime minister’s critics were trying to have it both ways.

“He didn’t campaign because they said, ‘Yes, we dumped you as leader because we thought you were a bad campaigner — but you should have campaigned in Wentworth,’” said Peter van Onselen.

“As far as the hard right of the Liberal Party are concerned, Malcolm Turnbull could walk on water across Sydney Harbour and they would have accused him of not paying the toll.”

“Imagine if he had ridden in on the white horse and had dared to say something about the week of madness. In fact, my understanding is they tried to get him to write a letter, but they wouldn’t let him. He said, ‘I would have to address the issue that brought us to this,’ and it was not negotiable, so it didn’t happen,” added ABC radio host Fran Kelly.

They pointed out that Dr Phelps was a “particularly strong independent” in Wentworth, given she was a well-known local, and said that was the biggest factor in her victory.

Independent candidate Dr Kerryn Phelps as claimed victory in Malcolm Turnbull’s old seat of Wentworth. Picture: Monique Harmer)

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma is facing a humiliating defeat, and has criticised Mr Turnbull’s lack of involvement. Picture: Tim Pascoe

The final result in Wentworth could technically remain in doubt for days as we wait for more postal votes to come in.

“This is something I can’t control, it’s in the hands of the voters,” Mr Sharma told Sky. “I’m behind Kerryn and it will be hard to make that up.”

Mr Morrison rejected calls for an early election yesterday, despite the likelihood of his Coalition government losing its majority.

“We have been at 75 (seats), not 76, since the former prime minister resigned,” Morrison told reporters. “In that time we had been able to legislate, run the Parliament and we haven’t lost a single vote.”

Losing Wentworth — for the first time in its 117-year history — would give the government only 75 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, with one of its seats being held by the speaker. Labor has 69 seats, while independents or minor parties hold six.

That means the government would need to gain support from the crossbench for its legislation.

It also reopens the questions about Peter Dutton’s eligibility to sit in parliament. Previous attempts to refer Mr Dutton to the High Court have failed by just one vote.

Mr Morrison admitted the by-election showed voters were furious about Turnbull being dumped.

“Yesterday Liberal voters expressed their anger at the parliamentary Liberal Party. There is no doubt about that. And we copped that fairly on the chin,” Mr Morrison said.

“The event of two months ago angered and outraged many Liberals and particularly those in the seat of Wentworth. That’s on us, the parliamentary Liberal Party. That’s not on Dave Sharma.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also hit out at his predecessor, with the Government in turmoil again. Picture: Monique Harmer

Mr Morrison said voters were clearly angry with the Liberal Party, but said he was not planning to call an early election. Picture: John Appleyard

Meanwhile, Labor’s Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke said Mr Morrison should call an election before the next one is due in May, given his argument before the by-election that a victory for Dr Phelps would destabilise the parliament.

Dr Phelps said she did not support an early election.

“All governments should go full term unless there are exceptional circumstances, and the next election is due in May next year and that’s time enough,” she told reporters.

Crossbenchers Bob Katter and Rebekha Sharkie said they would also prefer to see the government run its full term. Independent Andrew Wilkie said he would not guarantee confidence, while fellow crossbencher Cathy McGowan is yet to comment.

Greens MP Adam Bandt said an election should be called and “the sooner we turf out this rotten government, the better”.

Moderate Liberals have called on Mr Morrison to take more action on issues such as climate change after the upset in Wentworth. But conservatives say the seat does not reflect the rest of Australia and is not a prediction of what will happen at the next federal election.

“It’s dangerous to see Wentworth as a generalised or uniform Coalition seat. It’s quite an extraordinary seat,” Peta Credlin told Sky News.

“It had a high personal following there for Malcolm Turnbull. In fact when Kevin Rudd was elected in 2007, everybody else went backwards — remember, the then-prime minister John Howard lost his seat — while Malcolm Turnbull had an uptick in his vote.”

She said the issues that had helped Dr Phelps win, such as the ABC and the treatment of refugees on Nauru, would not necessarily resonate elsewhere.

“I think in the seats that change government, those true marginals, Scott Morrison would run better than Malcolm Turnbull. But this is a big hit for them. It’s absolutely a big hit.”

Ms Credlin said Mr Morrison’s job would now be infinitely harder and his government would struggle to seem legitimate.

“Every MP on the government’s side now, and on the crossbench, becomes a kingmaker. Everyone has the right now to walk into the Prime Minister’s office and demand this and demand this for their seat as a blood price,” she said.

“The government is almost seen as in exile, and the opposition gets a lot more currency out there in the community.

“The government has got to be careful from hereon in that they are not seen as illegitimate.”