NSW deputy premier John Barilaro calls on Malcolm Turnbull to quit

He says the NSW Deputy Premier, who called for Turnbull to quit, ‘wasn’t put up to it by anyone who’s got any political nous’.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro in Canberra today. Picture: Kym Smith

Barnaby Joyce has slammed NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro over his fellow National’s call this morning for Malcolm Turnbull to resign by Christmas.

Speaking to reporters in his New England, his former electorate in which he is fighting a crucial by-election tomorrow, Mr Joyce said: “I have to admit I was very disappointed with the comment by the Deputy Premier this morning”, adding that it was “very unhelpful”.

“I can’t fathom how people could think a comment like that is of anything but harm.”

Mr Joyce said he had no prior notice of what Mr Barilaro was going to say. “If I had, I would have advised him in the strongest terms that those comments not be made.

“I don’t think it profits anybody; it certainly works completely against the grain of how I and Malcolm have worked together in the past and hopefully will work together in the future.”

And in an apparent warning to disgruntled Nationals he said: “What I say to people quite clearly is if what you want to do is tear down the Coalition what you’re actually doing is asking that Bill Shorten become prime minister of Australia and Tanya Plibersek his deputy, and I don’t think people want that.”

Mr Joyce said of Mr Barilaro’s action: “He certainly wasn’t put up to it by anyone who’s got any political nous.”

.@Barnaby_Joyce: I was very disappointed with the comments by the NSW Deputy Premier, I would have advised those comments not be made. MORE: https://t.co/bfkQ61MtkU pic.twitter.com/l8Gg04Xwg1

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) December 1, 2017

Earlier Nationals Senate leader Nigel Scullion joined a line of senior Coalition figures to slap down Mr Barilaro over his comments on radio this morning, including NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

On radio this morning Mr Barilaro said Mr Turnbull should quit as prime minister “before Christmas as a Christmas gift” to Australians.

The state’s Nationals leader said he had lost all hope in Mr Turnbull, describing him as “out of touch” and the reason the federal government is in disarray.

“Turnbull is the problem. The Prime Minister is the problem. He should step down and allow for a clean-out of what the leadership looks like federally,” Mr Barilaro told Alan Jones on Sydney’s 2GB.

The Prime Minister responded by saying Mr Barilaro had “never raised these matters with me personally’’ and suggested he was just trying to “ingratiate” himself with Jones.

Senator Scullion said: “I have to say I have no understanding why John would ring Alan Jones and have a chat about the Prime Minister, whom he didn’t ring first.

“That’s just manners. If you’re going to have a big red hot crack at the Prime Minister, you’re going to throw him on the unemployment queue, you’re also going to need a reason, and I didn’t hear one of those.

“So look John, you’ve got my number mate, give me a ring, I’m not sure what’s ailing you but if you need a bit of therapeutic download with Nige you should have a yarn to me too.

“I’m more than happy to get you in to see the PM if you’ve got some problems. His door is always open to everyone, he’s that sort of leader, so if you want to have a yarn, I’ll make sure I set it up for you.”

Senator Scullion dismissed suggestions the NSW Nationals leader should resign, calling him “an absolutely cracker bloke … he’s a wonderful bloke (and) that’s why I’m a bit miffed by this”.

“But look, people have bad hair days, I suspect this is one of them.”

The NSW Premier, a Liberal, issued a statement distancing herself from the Nationals leader. “Mr Barilaro has expressed a personal view which I do not share,” Ms Berejilkian said. “Mr Barilaro is well aware of my position.

“I look forward to continuing to work with the Turnbull Coalition government to deliver a better quality of life for the people of NSW.

“Bill Shorten’s Labor Party is the biggest risk to our nation’s future.”

The public tensions between the two NSW coalition leaders come as the Turnbull government fights two crucial by-elections in the state - New England tomorrow and Bennelong in two weeks.

Queensland LNP MP Llew O’Brien, who was among Nationals threatening to cross the floor over a banking royal commission, had his own message for his state counterpart.

“John Barilaro seems like a good bloke, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. Mine is that John should focus on his role as vice captain of reserve grade and let the big boys and girls take care of federal matters,” Mr O’Brien said.

Mr O’Brien holds former deputy prime minister Warren Truss’s old seat of Wide Bay.

He and his wife are currently riding his Triumph motorbike on the 10-hour journey to New England to help Barnaby Joyce in tomorrow’s by-election.

@JohnBarilaroMP seems like a good bloke, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. Mine is that John should focus on his role as vice captain of reserve grade and let the big boys and girls take care of federal matters. #auspol

— Llew O'Brien MP (@LlewOBrienMP) December 1, 2017

Meanwhile federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said Mr Barilaro’s criticism of Mr Turnbull was lazy, weak, and lacked character.

“The easiest thing in politics is to get a run by whacking your own side, it requires absolutely no political skills,” Mr Fifield said. “It is lazy and weak and lacks character.”

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said December was the “silly season” in Australian politics.

“In the new year people often regret some of the things they said in December, and I think this rates up there with things that people will regret in the future,” Mr Pyne said.

“The best place for John Barilaro to make those kinds of remarks is privately to either Malcolm Turnbull or to whomever else he thinks deserves criticism.

“They certainly shouldn’t be made in the public domain, and obviously it’s regrettable that he’s said those things but I’m sure we can all move on from them because the National Party are responsible for what Nationals do, and the Liberal Party are responsible for what the Liberals do, and it’s not the Deputy Premier of NSW’s role to advise the federal Liberal Party about its leadership.”

However Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor would be delighted to have Mr Turnbull continue as Prime Minister until the next election, even if his Coalition colleagues want him to quit.

“Merry Christmas from the National Party, Prime Minister,” Mr Bowen said. “Thanks for the royal commission, now please quit. That’s the message from the National Party.”

Mr Bowen said he was going to do something “very unusual” and offer his support to Mr Turnbull.

“He might not have support in the National Party. He might not have support in the Liberal Party, but we in the Labor Party are more than happy for him to continue as leader of the Liberal Party right up to the next election,” he said.

“We’d be very delighted to have him as leader of the Liberal Party at the next election. He’s got our support to do so even if he doesn’t have the support of the Liberal or National parties. We’re prepared to back Malcolm.”

Mr Barilaro said the federal government’s response to the Queensland election loss shows a complete lack of leadership. “What really got my goat on Sunday was to hear the Prime Minister of this nation turn around and say there were no federal issues that affected the state government and the state election.

“I mean, that’s just a joke. If you’re completely out of touch like that comment … in my mind it just shows there is no leadership.

“You’ve got a party in disarray, a Coalition government in disarray and the community is not unified and that is all at the feet of the Prime Minister of Australia.’’

He said there would be no chance of Mr Turnbull winning the next election due to lack of support in his partyroom after backflipping over a banking royal commission.

“We don’t want to see the stabbing in the back, but that’s exactly what we are going to see in the months ahead if something doesn’t happen,” he said.

“My view is Turnbull should give (Australians) a Christmas gift and go before Christmas.”

Thank God for the NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

He's identified the elephant in the room. And he's saying publicly what Turnbull's colleagues are saying privately. pic.twitter.com/2LxbYq6P54

— Alan Jones (@AlanJones) November 30, 2017

Barilaro ‘trying to ingratiate himself with Alan Jones’

The Prime Minister, speaking on Melbourne radio 3AW, responded by saying Mr Barilaro had “never raised these matters with me personally’’.

“The last time I was with him was down at Cooma at the Snowy Mountains Scheme and we were talking about Snowy Hydro 2 and he was full of joy with the big investment we’re going to make there,’’ Mr Turnbull said.

He said Mr Barilaro should make such comments face-to-face, rather than “bagging” him in the media, and suggested Mr Barilaro was just trying to “ingratiate” himself with 2GB host Alan Jones.

“It’s odd. He’s never raised these matters with me personally. I think what’s going on is that he’s on Alan Jones, and he’s just trying to ingratiate himself with Alan and telling him what he wants to hear. So that’s what I think about it,” Mr Turnbull told 3AW host Neil Mitchell.

“If it was a serious view he held, you would think that he would speak with me directly, wouldn’t you?”

Mr Turnbull denied that others were expressing the same view privately.

“Well, they’re not expressing it privately to me,” he said.

“He actually made similar comments a little while ago and I left a message with him and he didn’t call me back, but he’s got my number, he can call me any time,” Mr Turnbull said.

“I’d be delighted to have a chat to him, but I think if somebody has a view like that, if I had a view about a state leader of that kind, I would express it, if I expressed it at all, privately and face-to-face. I wouldn’t be bagging them in the media like that.”

The Prime Minister denied he was irritated by Mr Barilaro’s comments, but criticised the NSW Deputy Premier’s timing, ahead of the New England by-election on Saturday.

“We have a National Party by-election on Saturday in New England, so Mr Barilaro should perhaps reflect on whether his remarks are going to be helpful for Barnaby, and of course we have a by-election for a Liberal, John Alexander, here in Bennelong on the 16th,” Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull said he was confident both men would win, but the contest would be “challenging”.

“By-elections are always challenging but we’ve got two great candidates in Barnaby and John Alexander and we’re working very hard to make sure they’re re-elected,” he said.

Barilaro ‘just wrong’, ‘irrelevant’

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Barilaro’s views were “just wrong”, and obviously unhelpful.

“I suggest he focuses on the National Party partyroom in NSW and leaves us to focus on the Liberal Party partyroom in Canberra,” Mr Cormann told Sky News.

“I’ve never met him. I don’t know him. Our focus is on making decisions every single day to put Australia on the strongest possible economic and fiscal foundation for the future to deal with issues and continue to take Australia forward. I’m not interested in these sorts of internal shenanigans.

“It’s very unhelpful and obviously would have been better if he hadn’t (made the comments).”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Mr Barilaro’s comments were “irrelevant’.

“He is not in our partyroom,” Ms Bishop said.

Turnbull in denial: Jones

2GB host Alan Jones said Mr Turnbull was in denial about the vulnerability of his leadership, an suggested social media comments condemning the Prime Minister in the aftermath of Mr Barilaro’s interview were “instructive”.

“If Malcolm Turnbull says no one’s told him, then it seems that his colleagues have told everybody else,” Mr Jones told Sky News.

“I’ve spoken to people in the cabinet who believe the situation is hopeless and something’s got to give. They’re all going over the cliff at the moment with him.”

Jones cited the Queensland election result and yesterday’s U-turn on a banking royal commission.

“(Mr Turnbull) tried to bully and lobby (Coalition MPs) Christensen and O’Sullivan and O’Brien not to cross the floor,” Mr Jones said.

“When it became clear to the cabinet and all the ‘me too’ people in the cabinet, the sycophants he’s got around him, that they were going to cross the floor, well it was a rock and a hard place. Do we face this ugly spectacle of public division in the partyroom or do we say well we’ll have a royal commission on our terms?”

Jones said the only reason Mr Turnbull was still Prime Minister was because there was no obvious replacement.

“They’re saying well you can’t go from Turnbull to someone who’s actually been part and parcel of the damage that’s already been done, but there are people, I mean Julie Bishop and Morrison and Pyne are counting numbers,” he said.

“There’s no doubt about that, but they’ve got no idea who should replace Turnbull. That’s the difficulty.”

Additional reporting: ANDREW CLENNELL, SOFIA GRONBECH WRIGHT