Enraged Liberals call for Turnbull expulsion after independent comments

Malcolm Turnbull faces a push to expel him from the Liberal Party over his latest comments.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Malcolm Turnbull faces a push to expel him from the Liberal Party over his comments encouraging Coalition supporters to vote for an independent candidate if they are unhappy with the party’s direction.

Former Victorian Liberal premier Jeff Kennett on Friday called on the former prime minister to resign from the party, ­accusing him of undermining the people who provided him with his opportunity. “Although Malcolm Turnbull is a wealthy man, he is the poorest in human spirit,” Mr Kennett tweeted on Friday night.

“Alone without friends in Australia, except the ABC, he lives abroad and endlessly undermines the people who gave him the ­opportunity to serve as PM.

“He should resign from the ­Liberal Party he attacks.”

NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes said the party’s state executive could expel Mr Turnbull for endorsing independent candidates running against the government, saying his conduct was ­“beyond a joke”.

Senator Hughes told Sky News the former Wentworth MP had clearly breached the party’s ­constitution and that she expected the state executive to take action after the election. “But I do think that there will be some movement post the election when the new state executive convenes,” she said. “I’ve known Malcolm for a really long time and to say that I’m disappointed is an understatement.”

Senator for New South Wales Hollie Hughes. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Josh Frydenberg also expressed disappointment at Mr Turnbull’s comments. The Treasurer is under threat in his seat of Kooyong from a Climate 200-backed independent candidate, Monique Ryan, who has criticised the government’s handling of the relationship with China, as well as its record on climate change and a federal integrity commission.

“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,” Mr Frydenberg said. “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 cleanskin, in fact, went as far as to call themselves a small-L liberal.

“But in the case of Monique 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.”

Scott Morrison said he had ­always treated former prime ministers with the “utmost dignity and respect” but did not share Mr Turnbull’s view.

“I urge the return of the Liberal-National government because that’s the strength that Australia needs in these times of great uncertainty,” he said. “If each and every day we had to go and ­negotiate for the government’s existence with a cavalcade of ­independents … Australia wouldn’t have the strength to go through the pandemic in the way we have.”

Former Liberal Party president, Richard Alston, gave a scathing ­assessment. “Treachery is his (Mr Turnbull’s) middle name. No doubthumiliated by being widely regarded as our worst ever Liberal PM,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Mr Turnbull has refused to say who he will vote for in the election, arguing it is a secret ballot.

The former prime minister, who lives in his old seat of Wentworth now held by Liberal MP Dave Sharma, has publicly left open the option of voting for “teal” independent Allegra Spender.

In a speech to the Washington Harvard Club, Mr Turnbull said political instability came from “internal ructions” within the major parties, not from independents.

He argued the Liberal Party had been captured by conservative forces within the Coalition.

“Even if the members of a political party cannot escape from the thrall of the dominant faction, their traditional supporters in the electorate can do so by voting for an independent who has a real chance of success,” he said.

14