Of plots and mincing poodles: Christopher Pyne’s political tell-all

Former minister Christopher Pyne has revealed Scott Morrison ‘never’ plotted against then PM Malcolm Turnbull.

hristopher Pyne takes his west highland scottish terriers, Daphne and Scout, for a walk outside his home in Adelaide Hills. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Former Coalition minister and Liberal powerbroker Christopher Pyne has revealed that Scott Morrison “never” plotted to wrest the prime ministership from Malcolm Turnbull and that his own friendship with Julie Bishop was almost destroyed by the moderates’ ­refusal to back her in the bitter 2018 leadership spill.

Mr Pyne has also documented how Tony Abbott lost the support of key backers as prime minister by secretly promising to allow Liberal MPs a conscience vote on marriage equality,

Christopher Pyne's new book: The Insider.

but then ­reneging on the deal. And he has revealed how he was so enraged by Julia Gillard’s attempt to ridicule him as a “mincing poodle” that he took great delight in destroying her prime ministership by hounding her over the AWU scandal.

These are among many juicy morsels in the former defence minister’s new memoir, The Insider, which focuses on Australian politics through the chaotic churn of seven prime ministers in less than a decade, from the election of Kevin Rudd in 2007 to the Liberals’ wilderness years and eventual return to power.

Far from being an embittered score-settling exercise, the memoir is an amusing, self-deprecating account of the latter half of Mr Pyne’s 27-year career as member for the Adelaide seat of Sturt, which he wrested from genial Fraser government minister Ian Wilson in a brutal preselection coup as a baby-faced 25-year-old law graduate.

“It’s not a revenge novel,” Mr Pyne said.

“It’s not a statement of claim in a divorce settlement. It’s an honest account of the inner workings of politics through what was often a time of great chaos.”

Despite Mr Pyne’s small-l liberal convictions and spectacular lifelong enmities with conservatives such as Cory Bernardi and Nick Minchin, the book reveals some of his closest political friendships are with the likes of right-wingers such as Mathias Cormann and Peter Dutton. The book also openly canvasses his good friend Mr Turnbull’s ego as being something of an obstacle to his appeal, especially within the partyroom.

Malcolm Turnbull gives a press conference after vacating the Liberal Party leadership in 2018. Picture: Sean Davey

Politics now

In terms of its relevance to present-day politics, the book bolsters Mr Morrison by scotching what Mr Pyne describes as “an elaborate conspiracy theory” that Mr Morrison and his backers had concocted a third-man style candidacy to come up the middle between Mr Dutton and Mr Turnbull in the 2018 coup.

The book describes Mr Dutton’s candidacy as “an amateur-hour operation” that was doomed to fail; conversely, it says Ms Bishop never had any chance of winning majority support, and had been told as much by Mr Pyne.

“The realpolitik was that while Bishop was a moderate, she couldn’t beat Dutton, and that Morrison was acceptable to the moderates and could bring enough votes with him from the centre and the conservative wings of the party to win,” Mr Pyne states in the book.

Mr Pyne sat down with The Weekend Australian at his new home in the Adelaide Hills, where he and his wife, Carolyn, moved last year with their four children and three dogs. They also have a chicken coop with a rooster nicknamed Malcolm Turnbull.

Two other roosters, nicknamed Mitch Fifield and Tony Abbott, had to be put down after they almost pecked each other to death.

Christopher Pyne with his West Highland scottish terriers, Daphne and Scout, at his house in the Adelaide Hills on Thursday. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

Mr Pyne, who insists he has no designs on returning to politics and now runs his own consultancy, says he hopes to put the events of the past 13 years in an honest context, including the manner in which Mr Morrison became Prime Minister.

“The idea that Scott (Morrison) was part of some byzantine conspiracy to wangle his way into the prime ministership is absurd,” he said. “That would have been an extraordinary Jenga manoeuvre that defies belief.”

Mr Pyne said his refusal to corral moderate support behind Ms Bishop had taken its toll on their longstanding friendship.

“But we should dispel this ­notion that I apparently surprised Julie by not having all the moderates voting for her,” he said.

“There are several pieces of evidence that this was not going to happen. But yes, it was a difficult week for Julie. We are now friendly again but there was a ­period where I was only pretending we were friendly.

“I can’t take no for an answer, of course. I ­assume everybody is just going through a period where they can’t be my friend, when in reality deep down they simply can’t stop liking me.

“I assumed that eventually that would pass but there is no doubt it was a very difficult period and we weren’t nearly as friendly as we had been for many years. That seems to have passed now.”

Peter Dutton and Christopher Pyne in parliament. Picture: Kym Smith

Dutton divide

Despite pouring scorn on the Dutton leadership bid — and having told him to his face that he would not just vote against him but marshall his troops to do the same — Mr Pyne revealed he and the right-wing Queenslander continued to enjoy a friendship.

“Dutton and I are perfectly amicable friends with each other, even now,” Mr Pyne said.

“His view was that Christopher is a ­political professional from the moderate side of the party and we need those people to vote for us if we are going to win. He knew I wouldn’t go down that well in Queensland but I go down perfectly well in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

“Conversely, my view was that Dutton was a very competent person, a very capable performer, who suits Queensland to a tee, but would never be electable in Adelaide. There was a happy dichotomy. He’s a happy conservative and I’m a happy moderate. There was no rancour between us, even when he wanted to be the leader he was perfectly aware that I wasn’t going to support him. We had a very pragmatic view based on what was going to be electorally successful.”

Former PM Tony Abbott. Picture: Nick Klein

Fall of Abbott

Mr Pyne credits the collapse of Mr Abbott’s partyroom support on his reneging on an undertaking he gave in November 2011 in front of his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, to allow a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

He says he had long supported Mr Abbott as prime minister and believed he had been generous to the moderates by keeping him and Joe Hockey and Ms Bishop in key positions, but that the conscience-vote backflip destroyed his leadership.

“I think Tony came under too much pressure from people who were opposed to marriage equality and who thought he had given too much to the moderates already,” Mr Pyne said. “That was the key difference between his management of the party and (John) Howard’s management of the party. When Howard realised there needed to be a conscience vote to maintain the unity of the party he would do so. He even had one on the republic, as well as RU486, euthanasia, stem cell research and mandatory detention in the NT.

“But with Tony, a lot of people who had wanted him to succeed regarded that as a body blow and changed their position. It festered away against him for a long time.”

From Pluto to Mercury

The Pyne book uses an analogy of the solar system to describe the ebb and flow of political careers, with the leader being the sun, and ministers being planets depending on their closeness to the leaders, and others such as Maxine McKew and Jackie Kelly being what he calls “shooting stars” who lacked the gravitas to endure.

He describes himself as the planet Pluto when Mr Howard was prime minister — payback for demanding Mr Howard stand aside as leader in what he describes as “a fit of youthful exuberance” — but says his career peaked as a senior minister and confidant to both Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott, when he became Mercury.

“The solar system analogy is a good way to analyse politics,” Mr Pyne said. “I was happy when I left because I had found my orbit. I had been happy in my orbit whereas some people never find their orbit, so they are bitter when they leave.”

Read an extract of Christopher Pyne’s new book in The Weekend Australian Magazine