Tony Abbott’s colleagues respond to his spray

Tony Abbott has intensified his attack on Liberal colleagues Scott Morrison, Mathias Cormann and Steve Ciobo | LISTEN

Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop ,Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce in Question Time in 2015. Picture: Gary Ramage

Tony Abbott has intensified his attack on Liberal colleagues critical of his stance on immigration, saying comments by Scott Morrison, Mathias Cormann and Steve Ciobo this week were “inept” and suggested the Turnbull government was “floundering”.

Mr Abbott launched a broadside at Turnbull cabinet ministers in The Australian today after the ministers smacked down a speech he gave at The Sydney Institute on Tuesday night this week calling for lower immigration.

The former Prime Minister told 2GB’s Ray Hadley it was clear the ministers had not read his speech “judging from the intemperate, over the top and to take a phrase from someone else, inept response they’ve made”.

Mr Abbott said they should have listened to him “with a degree of respect”.

“But for my efforts there wouldn’t be a government, but for my efforts in 2010 and 2013, Turnbull wouldn’t be prime minister and his ministers wouldn’t be in office. So I think they should listen with a degree of respect,” he told Hadley.

Mr Abbott suggested Mr Morrison, Mr Cormann and Mr Ciobo were “living in a Canberra bubble” and were not geniuses.

“We ought to be capable of having a sensible debate ...When some subjects are thought to be completely off limits for debate well governments founder and resentment grows. And the public are not mugs,” he said.

“Government ministers run away from [a discussion about lowering immigration] suggests they are living in a Canberra bubble. If they want to take pot shots at me, well I’m sorry but I will respond and I will respond and respond very forcefully because they are not such geniuses that they are the possessors of all political and economic wisdom.”

Ministers respond to Abbott spray

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said he was not going to “roll over” when he saw inaccurate statements being made about migrants as senior government ministers stood by their criticisms of Mr Abbott.

In his opinion piece in The Australian this morning, Mr Abbott said he “knows more about winning elections than anyone in the parliament”.

“One thing I am not going to cop is gratuitous criticism from ministers who are only in government because I led them there,” Mr Abbott wrote. “You’d think a government that’s lost the last 27 Newspolls might be curious about how it could lift its game.”

Despite the comments, Treasurer Scott Morrison said he stood by his critique while paying tribute to Mr Abbott’s immigration policies while in office and his achievements.

“Tony Abbott led us back to government in 2013; we were part of that team that made that happen and we all made our contributions and I was pleased to serve in his government as immigration minister, I was pleased to be the one who basically implemented and came up with, with Jim Molan, the plan to stop the boats,” he said on Friday.

“I stand by the things that I said and particularly what I said today which is that as a government we are addressing the infrastructure needs in a way that no government has before we have a strong plan and we’re putting it on the ground.”

Mr Ciobo said Mr Abbott’s comments needed to be responded to as they were inaccurate.

“You cannot have a situation where you try to pretend that immigration is the reason why we see an increase in house prices when the fact is that the increase in house prices is in many respects largely confined to Melbourne and Sydney, you’ve got other markets around Australia where the prices are falling.

“I’m not interested in a tit for tat with the former Prime Minister. [But] I’m certainly not just going to roll over when I hear comments made about immigrants and immigration which are inaccurate and I make no apology for that.”

Acting Prime Minister Mathias Cormann said he was not going to be distracted by Mr Abbott’s interjections.

“None of us are distracted. Tony Abbott is entitled to his views, he’s entitled to express them. We’re just getting on with business,” he said.

“Tony Abbott is a former prime minister ... he’s entitled to his views, he expresses his views on a range of matters. We are entitled to our views and the government is entitled to pursue what we believe is in Australia’s national interests and that’s really all there is to it.”