Abbott the prime mover against Turnbull: Banks

Liberal turncoat Julia Banks has named Tony Abbott as the ringleader in the move to depose Malcolm Turnbull as PM.

Julia Banks, left, Linda Burney, Julie Bishop and Sarah Hanson-Young at the All About Women event at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Hollie Adams

Liberal defector Julia Banks has named Tony Abbott as the ringleader in the move to depose Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister and says “bullying” during the party’s spill amounted to threats over pre­selections and ministerial promotions.

The MP for the eastern Melbourne seat of Chisholm, who quit the government in November, also accused Scott Morrison of making a “junior manager’s error” when he texted her in anger over her unexpected speech about asylum­-seeker policy while she was still a Liberal MP.

Ms Banks branded as “ridicul­ous” the complaint via text message that she should have fore­warned him about the October speech lashing the government’s offshore detention policy.

She left the party a month later.

“This is the party of free speech. I was still a member of the Liberal Party and I made a speech,” Ms Banks told the Ten Network.

“If you are a right-wing conservative, you can say whatever you like, but if you speak up about something you know is important to your electorate, (and) you get a text message, not even a phone call?

“In the business world, I would call that a junior manager’s error. If you give feedback, pick up the phone.”

Ms Banks said Mr Abbott was the leader of the push to oust Mr Turnbull as leader, with Health Minister Greg Hunt — who she will be challenging in the Mornington Peninsula seat of Flinders — and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton the other “prime movers”. “It was based purely on self-promotion,’’ she said.

“It had nothing to do with the nation’s interest, it was purely an act of revenge and people wanting to be in positions of power.”

Ms Banks, who was elected to parliament in 2016, refused to name the “bullies” because “people­ are fed up with talking about the internal machinations of the Liberal Party”.

She said the bullying behaviour included threats over preselect­ions and ministerial promotions. “I know for a fact members were told: if you don’t vote for Peter Dutton, your preselection will be severely compromised,” she said.

“There were deals being made. People were saying, ‘I’m going to quit unless I become a minister’, or people’s silence was being bought. Silence is very valuable to a major party.

“They attempted to buy my ­silence. I experienced, witnessed and observed an entrenched culture of anti-women behaviour.”

She said Julie Bishop was the “prime minister we should have had” and retold the former foreign minister’s displeasure at being overlooked by her colleagues for the role. “Scott got up and made a speech and pointed to the photographs and said: ‘There are men on that wall and there will be a woman there one day.’

“And I remember Julie saying ‘Which century?’ ” she said.

Ms Banks announced in Jan­uary that she would leave Chisholm at the election and run against Mr Hunt in Flinders as an independent.

The Victorian MP was on a panel at the All About Women event in Sydney on Sunday night with Ms Bishop, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Labor frontbencher Linda Burney.

Ms Banks took the opportunity to take another swipe at her former­ party, saying: “I think I’ve made it pretty clear I’ve moved on from the Liberal Party.”

She said she was happy to now be in the “sensible centre”, declaring that the right-wing conservative arm of the Liberal Party had become more reactionary.