Tony Abbott turns on Liberal deserter Campbell Newman

Tony Abbott has criticised Campbell Newman for quitting the party, ­expressing disappointment with the former Queensland premier’s ‘ugly breach’ with the LNP.

Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Tony Abbott has criticised Campbell Newman for quitting the party, ­expressing disappointment with the former Queensland premier’s “ugly breach” with the LNP, and warning that conservative splinter parties risk a Labor-Greens government.

The former prime minister said Mr Newman and other frustrated Liberals should “stay in and fight” rather than splitting the centre-right vote.

“When people split from the centre-right to go further to the right, the consequence is not normally a better centre-right. The consequence is normally a Labor-Greens government,” Mr Abbott said in his latest podcast interview with the Institute of Public Affairs.

“Surely no one who thinks that the current state of the Liberal Party is not to their taste ­really wants a Greens-Left government,” Mr Abbott said.

Although he said he had “a lot of time for Campbell Newman as a politician and as a human being”, he was “nevertheless very disappointed that he’s chosen to leave the Liberal Party the way he has”.

In July, Mr Newman said he was quitting the party and two weeks ago announced he was running for the Senate in Queensland for the Liberal Democrats because the Morrison government had been an ­abject failure with the Covid-19 vaccination rollout.

“I simply cannot sit by and watch Australia being so poorly led, and this crisis being so poorly managed, by our major political parties,’’ Mr Newman said.

“I love Australia and I love Queensland.

“I want to represent Queensland in the Senate and hold the major parties’ feet to the fire, ­because right now they are all ­seriously letting us down.”

Mr Abbott said he could understand how conservative people were disappointed that centre-right governments were not conservative enough for their taste, but he “very much wished” that Mr Newman had gone into “the LNP state council and said all of those things to the Liberals in the hope of generating a ­different response from within the party, rather than simply going away in this ugly public breach”.