Dumped PMs back Liberals’ full-term safeguard

Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott have welcomed a change in the Liberal Party rules that makes it harder to oust a sitting PM.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney yesterday. Picture: Adam Yip

Malcolm Turnbull and Tony ­Abbott, the man he deposed as leader, have welcomed a change in the Liberal Party rules that makes it harder for a sitting prime minister to be chucked out of office.

The two former Liberal prime ministers, who both lost the top job at the hands of their colleagues, yesterday supported the rule change, which will protect sitting PMs from being rolled.

The rule can be overturned with the support of two-thirds of the partyroom.

Former prime minister John Howard and Liberal Party federal president Nick Greiner also backed the sweeping reform.

Mr Turnbull, who labelled the move against him “crazy” and a “form of madness”, warned that “time will tell” as to the effectiveness of the changes.

“The prospect of there being fewer, less of the sort of revolving-door prime ministerships, as Scott Morrison put it — it’s a welcome reform,” he said in Sydney.

“Of course, how effective it will be, time will tell.”

Under the rules, Mr Turnbull would not have been able to depose Mr Abbott in September 2015. And he would not have been ousted himself in August this year.

Mr Abbott called the reforms “sensible” but would not say whether he should have implemented them when he was leader.

“That was then, this is now,” Mr Abbott said. “It’s a very sensible move by the Prime Minister and he’s got my full support.”

Mr Greiner said the rule changes were a “clear admission” the government was wrong to dump Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull.

“I think there almost no circumstances you could possibly ­imagine in which there would be a move to change an elected prime minister,” he told ABC radio.

“I don’t know that it helps us a lot to go back but certainly I think this is a clear admission we got it wrong.

“It’s not about is Abbott better than Turnbull, or vice versa. It’s not about the individual, it’s about the processes.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who urged Mr Turnbull to stand down because he did not have the support of the partyroom, said both former leaders would have been safe under the rules that passed through the Liberal partyroom last night.

“We are where we are, we can’t change the past,” he said.

The rule changes will not apply to opposition leaders.