Tony Abbott takes dig at Malcolm Turnbull over house shutdown

Tony Abbott has taken a swipe at Malcolm Turnbull for cancelling next week’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

Tony Abbott has taken a shot at Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP

Tony Abbott has taken a swipe at Malcolm Turnbull for cancelling next week’s sitting of the House of Representatives in another show of dissent over the move, as Bill Shorten tries to shame the Prime Minister into reversing the ­decision.

Mr Turnbull insisted the change to the timetable was “just common sense” and would ensure the parliament acted on its two priorities, to pass marriage equality laws and determine questions over the citizenship of MPs by Christmas.

But Mr Abbott argued the government should face the parliament despite its concerns.

“You might not always want to go back to parliament, but you always have to go back to parliament, because that’s your job,” Mr Abbott told Sky News last night.

The former prime minister also warned of the “toxic egos” at work in national affairs, saying this had made Australian politics more ­difficult in the years after the ­global financial crisis.

“If I may say so, I think perhaps on both sides of the parliament it’s been the era of toxic egos and I think this has been part of our problem,” he told Sky’s Credlin program. “Too many people have put themselves first and not their country.”

The decision to delay the ­resumption of parliament from November 27 to December 4 has fuelled speculation that the government could be bracing for more grim news from Coalition MPs who fall foul of the citizenship requirements in the Constitution, putting the government’s majority in greater danger.

Labor is claiming five Coalition MPs may need to be referred to the High Court to rule on their right to sit in parliament, while the government has targeted four Labor MPs it could seek to have disqualified.

The Coalition will have only 73 votes on the floor of the lower house for the remainder of this year, while Labor has 69 and could persuade five crossbenchers to back it on votes that embarrass the government.

Mr Shorten secured support from four of the crossbenchers yesterday to write a joint letter to Mr Turnbull to bring back the lower house this Monday, with Adam Bandt, Bob Katter, Rebekha Sharkie and Andrew Wilkie co-signing the letter.

While Ms Sharkie has promised to back the government on confidence and supply, she has spoken out against the move to delay next week’s sitting and is also caught up in the citizenship storm after Mr Turnbull advised her she could be in trouble because of her British heritage. Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce faces a by-election on December 2 but is not expected to return this year.