A vote for teal independents will thwart capture of Liberal Party: Malcolm Turnbull

Scott Morrison and senior Coalition MPs respond to Malcolm Turnbull’s comments encouraging traditional Liberal supporters to vote independent.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Washington on Friday.

Senior Coalition MPs have responded to Malcolm Turnbull’s comments encouraging traditional Liberal Party supporters to vote for an independent if they are disappointed with the party’s direction.

Scott Morrison doubled down on his warnings about the risks the election of independents posed to the nation’s security during a time of geopolitical insecurity and economic uncertainty,

In Perth to announce a $108.5m investment to develop a defence industries pathway program to fully fund trainee wages, the Prime Minister declined to say whether Mr Turnbull should be kicked out of the Liberal Party for his remarks.

“My warning is very clear to those seats where people are thinking about independents, I would say this: if they won’t tell you how they would vote, how could you vote for them? Not just on who they support in government, but we can’t have a government that’s a weather vane,” Mr Morrison said.

“Now, when it comes to what other former prime ministers have said, I have always treated former prime ministers of both political persuasions with the utmost of dignity and respect. I don’t share his view.”

Josh Frydenberg, who is under threat in his seat of Kooyong from Climate 200 backed independent candidate, Monique Ryan, said: “It’s deeply disappointing to see those comments because a vote for the so called independents is a vote for Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party and the chaos and the uncertainty that will come with a hung parliament.

“In my case, I’m up against a former member of the Labor Party who’s masquerading as a so called independent and they sought to conceal their Labor Party background, describe themselves as a political clean skin, in fact, went as far as to call themselves a small l liberal.

“But in the case of Monqiue Ryan, she’s described Malcolm Turnbull as a national disgrace. So I don’t know how Malcolm Turnbull could endorse somebody who called him a national disgrace.”

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce hit out at Mr Turnbull, saying he was the “ultimate entitled person”.

Mr Joyce said Mr Turnbull is engaging in a process which will “make our nation weaker” and turned his back on the party, which made him prime minister.

“I’d say to Mr Turnbull have a little bit more consideration and do something statesmanlike and say ‘whatever you do, we’re all going to have to make a sacrifice; we’re not going to get everything we want’,” he told Sky News Australia.

“‘When you vote, vote for yourself but vote for your nation as well’.”

Simon Birminghan says he’s “disappointed” in his friend Mr Turnbull. Senator Birmingham said while Mr Turnbull “remains a friend of mine, on this occasion Malcolm is wrong”.

“He’s dead wrong,” he told Sky News.

“What we’ve seen over this term of parliament is that hard working local MPs like Dave Sharma have represented the values of their electorate, and they are the ones who helped to secure the Coalition’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”

Senator Birmingham tried to draw attention away from Mr Turnbull’s comments and back towards reasons to vote for the Liberal Party, but continued to face questions.

“Do you think Malcolm Turnbull should still be a member of the Liberal Party?” host Gabriella Power asked. “The Liberal Party remains, as John Howard put it, a broad church… We are better and bigger and stronger for the diversity of views that we have within our ranks,” Senator Birmingham responded.

Mr Turnbull’s successor, Scott Morrison, is likely to face similar lines of questioning when he steps up for his press conference in Perth later on Friday.

A vote for teals will thwart capture of Libs: Turnbull

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has sympathised with disaffected Coalition voters who might be planning to vote for “teal’’ independents in the upcoming election to punish the government for “moving too far to the right”, in a speech in Washington that also called for censorship of “right wing’’ media.

Speaking at the Harvard Club of Washington DC on Thursday evening (Friday AEST), Mr Turnbull, who was prime minster from 2015 to 2018, explained how Republican voters in the US and Liberal voters in Australia might consider voting for ‘independents’ to save their political parties from supposed extremism.

“What does a traditional voter for, say, the Liberal Party in Australia or the Republican Party in the US do if they think their party has moved too far to the right” he told the invitation-only event according to a speech circulated in advance.said

“If more of these ‘teal’ independents win, it will mean the capture of the Liberal Party will be thwarted by direct, democratic action from voters. People power, you might say,” he said.

He went on: “Of course the big parties’ arguments against independents is always the same - instability, chaos and so on. But in truth, many parliaments, including in Australia, have operated with stability and good effect with major parties requiring the support of independents or minor parties to pass legislation and, in fact, in our Senate that has almost always been the case. Formal coalitions are also very common - the Liberal Party has always been in coalition with the (rurally based) National Party for example. Political instability invariably comes from internal ructions within the major, governing parties not from independents on the cross benches.’’

Mr Turnbull clarified his remarks on radio ahead of his speech, stressing he wasn’t advocating for people to vote any particular way. “I am not encouraging people to vote for anyone, I am encouraging people to vote,” he told ABC radio.

But the former Liberal Party leader, who lives in the blue ribbon Wentworth electorate in Sydney’s east, did not say he would be voting for the sitting Liberal MP Dave Sharma, leaving an impression he might vote for “‘teal’’ independent Allegra Spender.

“It is a secret ballot and I will keep that to myself,” Mr Turnbull said as he entered the Washington Harvard Club, at an event hosted by law firm Hogan Lovells.

Mr Turnbull’s comments on the campaign, his first since the election was called last month, comes less than three weeks from polling day at a difficult time for the Morrison government, which has been consistently behind Labor in key opinion polls, while bookies have consistently pencilled in a slim Labor victory on 21 May.

Government pollsters remain fearful high profile MPs such as Mr Sharma, Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong and Tim Wilson in Goldstein could lose their seats following high profile campaigns by ‘teal’ independents, funded in part by climate change activist Simon Holmes a Court.

“In a number of hitherto safe Liberal seats, residents have organised to support small “l” liberal independent candidates who are typically progressive on climate and social issues, but more conservative than Labor on economic issues,” Mr Turnbull explained.

In a speech that dwelt on the supposedly insidious influence of Fox News in the US and Sky News in Australia, Mr Turnbull also issued a veiled call for more censorship of “misinformation”. “Elevating truthful content will not be enough to change our current course … We are drowning in lies,” he said.

Since losing office in 2018 Mr Turnbull, along with former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has continually railed against News Corp, publisher of The Australian, which he argues contributed to his downfall and replacement by Scott Morrison.

“Since my deposition in 2018 it is fair to say that the liberal, or moderate, voices have been marginalised and their influence is much diminished and diminishing - especially on the toxically controversial issue of climate change where the political right, supported by Murdoch’s media, have opposed effective action for many years,” he said.

The former liberal leader, who succeeded Tony Abbott as prime minister in 2015, said on his trip to Washington he had found “remarkable agreement” about “what has gone wrong” with democracy, blaming the Donald Trump faction of the Republican party and Tucker Carlson.

“Hyper partisan mainstream media, particularly Fox News, has legitimised the type of crazy fact free, conspiracy laden content that used to be the preserve of social media alone. One congressman said to me last week “Fox is the toxic background music to everything we do,” het said.

Mr Turnbull has been frequently critical of the Morrison government since leaving politics, including slamming the cancellation of a contract to buy French submarines as a result of the AUKUS security pact signed between Australia, the UK and US in September last year.