‘Ousting Turnbull helped save the Liberals’

Dutton declares removing Turnbull put the Liberals in its best position in two decades.

Peter Dutton appearing in Sky News’ 'Bad Blood/New Blood'. Picture: Sky News

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has declared removing Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister put the Liberal Party in its best position in two decades and saved the government from losing up to 20 seats at the May 18 poll.

Mr Dutton, who challenged Mr Turnbull for the leadership last August but was defeated in a ballot by Scott Morrison, said his agitation to replace the former prime minister helped save the government.

“In doing what we did last August and with the success that has followed we put the Liberal Party in the best possible position it has been in for at least 20 years,” Mr Dutton said in the second part of the Sky News series Bad Blood/New Blood.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we were going to lose at least another 15 to 20 seats if Malcolm remained leader.

“All of the experts who criticised us for changing leader last August would be the same critics now saying ‘why the hell didn’t you change the leader before the election?’ There are always cheap seats in politics; there are very few in the arena.”

Mr Turnbull was criticised by Liberal MPs Luke Howarth and Michael Sukkar for failing to help Dave Sharma in the Wentworth by-election campaign, while Mr Sharma said it would have been helpful to receive stronger backing from the former prime minister.

Also in the episode, the Prime Minister revealed his “quiet Australians” election pitch came to him in January while holidaying on the NSW South Coast and spending downtime with families who flocked to the beach for their yearly break.

Mr Morrison said the beachside town of Shoalhaven Heads had a mixture of people who were staying in caravan parks, motels and higher-end hotels.

“It has got everybody,” Mr Morrison said.

“But what struck me about all of these people, these Australians, was they weren’t wearing wristbands, they weren’t activists, they weren’t that involved in politics and frankly they didn’t have any time for it.

“And I wrote a little piece in my notebook about what they were talking about: their business, their families, their schools.

“And it was, if you like, a manifesto from quiet Australians. They for me became my absolute motivation and guide.”

In an episode that focused on the Coalition’s surprise election victory, Mr Morrison also said he mimicked parts of November’s Victorian election campaign waged by Premier Daniel Andrews.

“I think the state election in Victoria was substantively misinterpreted. I thought the Liberal Party got a bit self focused about that. The truth was Daniel Andrews won,” Mr Morrison said.

“I made the point at the time: that’s interesting, an incumbent government, they seem to have done a good job on infrastructure and their local economy and (have) been returned by the people. And I thought ‘well that is a pretty compelling argument’.”

While Mr Morrison said he was always confident of winning the election, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg admitted he thought a victory was unlikely.

“I always thought there was a chance of winning but I was looking at the polls thinking this is possible but probably not probable,” Mr Frydenberg said.

Leading moderate Christopher Pyne labelled Julia Banks a “quitter” for defecting from the Liberal Party while Victorian powerbroker Michael Sukkar denies her preselection was threatened in the lead-up to the August spill.