Abbott set to launch Turnbull-bashing, pro-Right tome

James Allan’s collection of essays, Making Australia Right, trashes the government’s record and policy priorities.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Tony Abbott will launch a new book that is scathing in its criticism of Malcolm Turnbull, sparking fresh controversy for the government.

James Allan’s edited collection of essays, Making Australia Right, trashes the government’s record, political strategy and policy priorities and offers “a handbook for how the right side of politics might get back on track”.

The contributions by leading centre-right commentators such as Judith Sloan, Roger Franklin, Jim Molan, Jeremy Sammut and Alan Moran does not spare the Abbott government either, which also comes in for sharp criticism.

Dr Allan, a professor in law, ­argues that having lost one million voters at the last election, the Liberal Party under Mr Turnbull ­offers little hope for blue-blood conservatives. He describes Mr Turnbull as “a man of the centre-left” in his personal beliefs.

“The overall tone is not one of bubbling optimism (for conservatives),” he writes. “How could it be with the current state of the Liberal Party in this country?”

Dr Allan describes Mr Turnbull’s election campaign last year as “lacklustre”, and lacking ambition and vision in the contest with Labor.

“Mr Turnbull did not fight them on the unions, or on the boats, or on the need for significant government spending cuts,” he writes. “He certainly didn’t don Tony Abbott-like togs and fight them on the beaches. Instead, the Liberal Party made Mr Turnbull himself the focus of much of the campaign, and mouthed vapid slogans about ‘innovation’ at pretty near every opportunity.”

The book includes essays on economic, health, education, indigenous, energy and industrial relations policy alongside topics such as the media, political correctness, inequality, religion and the state of the Liberal Party. Making Australia Right: Where to From Here?, published by Connor Court, will be launched by Mr Abbott in North Sydney this evening.