Election 2022: Malcolm Turnbull decries Solomons ‘failure’

Malcolm Turnbull will not campaign for Liberal MP Dave Sharma in his former seat of Wentworth and has publicly left open the prospect of voting for ­independent candidate Allegra Spender.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Malcolm Turnbull will not campaign for Liberal MP Dave Sharma in his former seat of Wentworth and has publicly left open the prospect of voting for ­independent candidate Allegra Spender.

The former prime minister said he would be “staying out of the election contest” in a media interview in which he described the signing of a security agreement between Beijing and ­Honiara as an “absolute failure of foreign policy” and called for Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves to be disendorsed.

“My only contribution to the election in Wentworth will be to vote,” Mr Turnbull told ABC radio on Tuesday.

Asked who he would vote for, Mr Turnbull replied it was a ­“secret ballot” but both Mr Sharma and Ms Spender were “very good candidates”.

“Dave Sharma is a very talented guy. Allegra Spender is an outstanding candidate,” he said.

“Whichever one of them is elected, there will be a very fine representative in Wentworth in the federal parliament.”

After he left parliament upon losing the prime ministership, Mr Turnbull did not campaign for Mr Sharma at the 2018 by-election despite a request for assistance, with independent Kerryn Phelps going on to win the seat.

At the 2019 election, when Mr Sharma won back the electorate for the Liberals, Mr Turnbull again did not campaign. He has not participated in a Liberal handout campaign, assisted with robocalls or appeared at Liberal election campaign event to assist Mr Sharma since leaving politics.

Mr Turnbull and Mr Sharma crossed paths briefly on the hustings in 2019 at the Rose Bay ferry terminal, with the former prime minister agreeing to be in a photo with the Liberal candidate. He tweeted: “Great to see you Dave! Good luck on the 18th of May.”

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Turnbull also took aim at the Liberal candidate in the seat of Warringah, Ms Deves, and her recent comments on transgender people. “They are hateful comments that seem designed to whip up animosity and hatred against some of the most vulnerable ­people in our community. I think they are completely unacceptable and I agree entirely with what (NSW Treasurer) Matt Keane has said about it: she shouldn’t have been endorsed and she should be disendorsed.

“But she is Scott Morrison’s pick and the members of the Liberal Party in NSW don’t have any say in preselections, you may have noticed of late. They are all in the hands of Mr Morrison.”

Ms Deves has previously used social media to publish offensive views on the transgender community, and has likened her battle to stop transgender athletes competing in women’s sports to the fight against Nazi Germany. She has since deleted those posts and apologised.

Mr Turnbull also criticised the government’s management of the Pacific, saying Peter Dutton’s rhetoric as Defence Minister was “becoming more and more bombastic and belligerent”.

He said the signing of a security deal between Beijing and Honiara was a “really unwelcome development and the government cannot gild the lily on this – this has been a failure. This is (an) absolute failure of foreign policy.”

He said Foreign Minister Marise Payne should have been sent to Solomon Islands to make Australia’s case, saying there was no substitute for being “face to face on the ground … The ball has been dropped.”