Malcolm Turnbull will never stop attacking Scott Morrison’s government, Peter Dutton says

Peter Dutton says he’s more convinced than ever it was right to get rid of Malcolm Turnbull after the former PM’s bushfire attack | WATCH

Malcolm Turnbull has gone onto the BBC to attack Scott Morrison.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says Malcolm Turnbull “never will” stop attacking Scott Morrison and the Coalition and he is more convinced than ever it was right to get rid of him, after the former prime minister’s attacks on his successor’s handling of the bushfires.

Mr Turnbull told the BBC on Thursday that Mr Morrison was not acting like a prime minister for not ramping up his climate change policies and for going on holiday during the fires.

The Home Affairs Minister – who led the push to remove Mr Turnbull in 2018, but failed to win the leadership himself – said voters only thank him for helping to defeat the former Liberal leader.

“The fact is that he never will (stop criticising the government). That’s the reality, that’s a fact for a variety of reasons,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“I’m not going to give attention to it. Most Australians made up their mind on Mr Turnbull, the party room right made up its mind in relation to Mr Turnbull, and as each day goes by – I can assure you – I believe we got it right. Examples like this just re-enforce the fact we got it right.
“I get stopped by people on the street who say ‘Thank God you won the election. Thank God you changed leader.’ Nobody says to say what a pity you changed leader.”

Mr Turnbull – who was removed by his own Liberal MPs in 2018 – has spent the bushfire crisis criticising his former colleagues on their approach to climate change.

But his personal attack on the Prime Minister is a ratcheting up in recent tensions between the two.

Mr Turnbull told the BBC’s Newsnight program that he could not understand Mr Morrison’s actions over summer, including his highly criticised holiday to Hawaii.

“I don’t know why Scott Morrison has acted the way he has, to be very frank with you. I worked with him very closely, I’ve known him for 20 years at least and I can’t explain his conduct,” Mr Turnbull told the BBC.

“I can’t explain why he didn’t meet the former fire commissioners who wanted to see him in March last year to talk about the gravity of the threat.

“Instead of doing what a leader should do and preparing people for that, he downplayed it and then of course chose to go away on holiday in Hawaii? At the peak of the crisis?

“I just can’t explain any of that. It’s just not consistent with the way in which a prime minister would or should act.”

Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison have come to metaphorical blows several times since the latter took over the Prime Ministership, on a range of issues from climate change to Australia’s stance on Israel.

Mr Turnbull has repeatedly linked the bushfires of this summer to climate change, but denounced any links between isolated weather events and global warming after the Tathra bushfires in 2018.

The former Liberal leader also used his BBC interview to attack US president Donald Trump and other climate change sceptics in the Western Right.

“To be a climate change denier is a badge of honour on the right wing of politics here and the United States, and it’s mad,” Mr Turnbull told the BBC.

“Essentially, Trump is the leading climate denier in the world … and is actively working against global action to reduce emissions

“How many more coral reefs have to be bleached? How many more million hectares of forest have to be burnt? How many more lives and homes have to be lost before the climate change deniers acknowledge they are wrong?”