Peter Dutton says follow the leader as Liberals bicker

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has fired a warning shot at Tony Abbott and government MPs to ‘respect the leader’.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has fired a warning shot at Tony Abbott and government MPs to “respect the current leader”, as in-fighting continues to dog the Liberal Party.

The senior conservative Queens­land MP also said former prime ministers, such as Mr ­Abbott and Labor’s Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, should receive a “great deal of respect” from their colleagues.

Mr Abbott’s contributions to public debate are frustrating some members of the Coalition, with some recent interventions labelled “destructive” by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

When Mr Abbott was ousted as prime minister he promised there would be “no wrecking, no undermining, and no sniping” but in February he declared that the Coal­ition risked a “drift to defeat” and unveiled an alternative policy manifesto that sparked furious brawling between MPs.

Mr Dutton defended Mr Abbott’s right to speak out, especially in attacking Bill Shorten as a “disastrous” would-be prime minister, but said respect had to be mutual.

“We have a great deal of respect for former prime ministers in the Liberal Party, and the Labor Party, frankly, has the same respect toward any of their former leaders including Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in most recent times,” Mr Dutton told the ABC’s Insiders.

“It is a two-way process ... former leaders also need to show ­respect to the current leader, to the current party, and that is my ­approach.” Mr Dutton said reinstating Mr Abbott to the ministry was a matter for Malcolm Turnbull but pointed out the Prime Minister wanted to promote more women and younger MPs to the front bench.

Mr Dutton, considered a future Liberal Party leader, said that he planned to play a “good, construct­ive and positive” role in the Turnbull government but conceded that he, like his 148 lower-house colleagues who were not prime minister, aspired to the top job one day.

“I’ve always been very clear — there are 150 members in the lower house of parliament, in the House of Representatives. There’s one that’s prime minister and there’s 149 that want to be, so let’s support the leader,” Mr Dutton said.

“I’m just one of a humble 149 … I was rock-solid loyal to Tony ­Abbott. I’m rock-solid loyal to Malcolm Turnbull. I was to John Howard and to Brendan Nelson and that’s been my approach and it’ll be the approach that I take into the future.”

Senator Cormann has urged Mr Abbott to reflect on John Howard’s conduct as a former prime minister, saying he had “defined the gold standard” in making ­effective public contributions after leaving office.

Labor frontbencher Richard Marles said the government’s ­decisions to abolish 457 visas and strengthen the citizenship test were political manoeuvres ­designed to save Mr Turnbull’s prime ministership.

“What has happened to Malcolm Turnbull is astounding,” Mr Marles told Sky News. “Is this really what it was about in rolling Tony Abbott — that Malcolm Turnbull would end up in this place?”

“Ultimately, it seems to me if this is where he was going to be, I don’t understand why there was a move to remove Tony Abbott in the first place.”