Malcolm Turnbull on Q&A: ex-PM to return to business world

Malcolm Turnbull will ‘return to the business world’ after declaring people were entitled to an explanation for his being dumped.

‘I’m back in business’: Malcolm Turnbull on the ABC’s Q&A last night.

Malcolm Turnbull will “return to the business world” after declaring the Australian people were entitled to an explanation for his being dumped as prime minister.

The former investment banker said last night he loved “nothing more than technology” and would “go back to creating jobs” in the private sector, saying he was open to investing in new renewable energy projects.

Pressed by Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes about whether he would invest in a plan to take Australia into a 100 per cent renewable energy future, Mr Turnbull told ABC’s Q&A he would consider it. The former prime minister also argued that a new coal-fired power station in Australia was not economical.

“If Mike is inviting me to invest in a renewable-energy project with, you know, storage or pumped hydro or whatever, then I would look at it on its merits,” he said. “I’m back in business. I’m retire­d from politics.”

Turnbull on Q&A: How it unfolded live

In his first set-piece media appear­ance since being dumped from the leadership on August 24, Mr Turnbull warned that the Liberal­s had lost touch with their key values and argued he was betraye­d by the right wing of his own party, who had been egged on by sections of the media.

He blamed Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott for masterminding the insurgency that “blew up the government”, revealing that he didn’t anticip­ate the push against him and claiming he could have won the next election.

Mr Turnbull said the decision of a handful of “insurgents” in removing him as prime minister was “crazy” and an act of “madness”.

The former prime minister said Mr Dutton and senior ministers including Greg Hunt, Math­ias Cormann, Michaelia Cash, Mitch Fifield, Angus Taylor and Steven Ciobo had orchestrated the push against his leadership and called on them to provide an explanation for their actions. “People are entitled to know why those who voted for the spill, particularly those who led it, particularly the cabinet ministers … why they did it,” Mr Turnbull told a special edition of the ABC program.

Casting the darkest possible motives over his internal oppon­ents, Mr Turnbull suggested his ousting could have been because they feared he would beat Bill Shorten and win the next election.

“Maybe they were worried we’d win the election,” he said. “Maybe they were not worried we’d lose it; maybe they were worried we’d win it.”

Mr Turnbull said responsibility for an explanation lay with “the people who engineered the coup”.

“They are people like Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt and Mathias Cormann — the people who voted for the spill,” Mr Turnbull said.

“I did not anticipate that people would act, particularly cabinet ministers, would act so self-­destructively. It never occurr­ed to me that those people would act in a way that was going to be so ­damaging both to the government, to the party and, frankly, to the nation.”

Mr Turnbull, who claimed the legalisation of same-sex marriage as one of his leading achievements, said Scott Morrison had “dealt himself a very tough hand of cards” but accept­ed his successor had not played a role in moving against him.

“He took advantage of a ­situation that was created by other­s,” Mr Turnbull said. “That is how he’s presented the circumstances himself, and I’m not in a position to ­contradict that or question that”.

Arguing that he was in a position to win the next election, Mr Turnbull said the partyroom was aware of internal polling that showed favourable numbers for the government in the final days of his prime ministership.

“In our own poll we were 52-48 ahead, so there’s no question the government was doing well,” he said. “We were thoroughly competitive. And we were in a position where we had every chance, every prospect, of being able to win the election.”

Following the defeat in the Wentworth by-election, Mr Morriso­n suggested that Mr Turnbull’s refusal to campaign for Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, could have been the difference in what was a narrow loss.

Mr Turnbull defended his decis­ion not to intervene in last month’s by-election, arguing that it would have been a negative for the government.

He blamed the poor result on a horror final week leading into the by-election, in which the government was distracted by having to apologise for supporting Pauline Hanson’s “It’s OK to be white” motion in the Senate and by a backlash over the possible relocatio­n of Australia’s embassy in Israel.

“I did support Dave Sharma,” Mr Turnbull said. “Every day Dave and Scott Morrison and ­others repeated and the media repeat­ed that he had our support.”

“My judgment was that were I to be campaigning or be particularly visible in any way in the Wentworth by-election, it would be unhelpful to Dave Sharma’s prospects, but also it would not have been very helpful for me maintaining my own peace of mind. I believe the by-election was lost in the last week”.

Tensions have been strained between the former and current prime ministers since the spill. Mr Morrison said last week that Mr Turnbull should follow the ­example of other former prime ministers, by refraining from offeri­ng political commentary.