Liberal veteran tells Malcolm Turnbull to sever ties with party

Richard Alston says the former PM acted as ‘an almost undercover agent’ in helping give the Guardian a footprint in Australia.

Former Liberal Party president Richard Alston has urged Malcolm Turnbull to sever ties with the political organisation he once led, declaring the former prime minister acted as “an almost undercover agent” for his role in helping give the Guardian a footprint in Australia.

Mr Alston, party president from 2014 to 2017, urged Mr Turnbull to “acknowledge reality and move on” from the Liberals amid a push to expel the former Wentworth MP as a member of the NSW division.

Former communications minister Richard Alston. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

“For me, the first thing is Malcolm should reflect on is why he wants to belong to a party which he clearly has no affinity (for),” Mr Alston, a former Howard government minister, said.

“He should acknowledge the reality that he has no interest in party politics and no interest in the Liberal Party.

“The way he has behaved with the Guardian, pushing an outfit that was hostile to almost everything the Liberal Party believes in, tells you that he has no reason to want to stay other than to just cause trouble or be part of a vanity project.”

Mr Alston’s call for Mr Turnbull to quit is an escalation on his criticisms of the former prime minister since 2018.

NSW government minister and leading moderate Matt Kean attacked conservatives in the state division who were pushing to expel Mr Turnbull from the party because of allegations in the former prime minister’s memoir. The expulsion motion is proposed by NSW party official Christian Ellis and has won the early backing of Morrison government MPs Craig Kelly and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

The Prime Minister is a key target in Mr Turnbull’s book, which says the Liberals did not deserve to win the last election and there were “trust’’ issues with Mr Morrison.

Mr Kean, who garnered controversy for criticising Mr Morrison’s climate change policy at the height of the bushfire crisis, questioned why the party of free speech had “such a problem with the truth”.

NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Malcolm delivered Snowy 2.0 and same-sex marriage and made our country a more fair and secure place and this is the thanks he gets from these nobodies,” Mr Kean said.

“Malcolm Turnbull is not left-wing. He’s on the same page as the majority of Australians and other conservative heroes like Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and John Key.”

Amid anger in the Morrison government over Mr Turnbull’s book, Liberal National senator James McGrath said he regretted using his influence in the party to help topple Tony Abbott in 2015. “Yeah, I regret. The promise that was Malcolm ended up being a nightmare for the Liberal Party and the Liberal National Party,” Senator McGrath told Sky News.

Senator McGrath, who turned on the former prime minister in favour of Peter Dutton in August 2018, painted Mr Turnbull as a leader who treated his staff and colleagues poorly. “I found Malcolm at times to be very difficult. I found how he spoke to people, how he treated people, was not the public image,” he said.

“I know he spoke to staff like that. And I know a very good friend of mine, how he treated her, in terms of when she was a staff member in the government. I think she is still recovering from it.”

Even supporters of Mr Turnbull’s expulsion admit it is unlikely they will force him out of the party because of the need to change party rules to allow expulsions. This would require the backing of a majority of the state executive and 60 per cent of party members at state council. State council was supposed to meet next month but this has been postponed because of the pandemic.

Rules allow the party to suspend members for up to five years but there is not provision for a life ban. Sources said the motion was not finalised and may be changed to propose suspension rather than expulsion. State executive will meet on May 1.

Liberal Party federal vice-president Teena McQueen said there had been a “groundswell of support among the base” for Mr Turnbull’s expulsion from the party.