No escaping long-range malcontent sniper’s fire

As Malcolm Turnbull arrives home in Sydney, he’s proven he won’t live up to his maxim that ex-PMs are “best out of parliament, not in it”.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull arrives home in Point Piper this morning after flying in from Singapore. Picture: ABC News

The penny finally seemed to drop for Scott Morrison when losing the Wentworth by-election and his government’s one-seat majority became a real possibility.

So much for Malcolm Turnbull’s maxim that former prime ministers were “best out of parliament, not in it”.

Turnbull’s abrupt exit was starting to look like the ultimate revenge of an aggrieved former leader. He had not only resigned as prime minister but quit his seat and disappeared to New York. Once there, he claimed to be a ­private citizen, getting on with his life, but meanwhile indulged ­remotely in the sort of sniping and destabilising for which he had ­attacked Tony Abbott and others.

Despite an early tweet, ­Turnbull could not be persuaded to come out with active support for Dave Sharma, the Liberal candidate standing in his place, when the Liberals needed it most.

A series of opinion polls indicated independent Kerryn Phelps was on track for a historic win that could bring the government to a premature end, but Turnbull had no intention of helping out.

Nor did he intend coming home before Wentworth voters went to the polls — instead taking a roundabout route home with a stopover in Singapore to visit his son Alex, whose persistent social media messages to voters had an unequivocal ring: “Don’t vote for the Liberal Party in the Wentworth by-election.”

With the by-election over, Turnbull flew into Sydney from Singapore this morning, avoiding the media at the airport.

Just arrived back in Australia with former PM @TurnbullMalcolm and his wife Lucy on the same flight. I think there will be a few people (like the press) waiting to meet him!! #auspol #Wentwothvotes pic.twitter.com/jecpwoIBTc

— Stephen Fenech (@StephenFenech) October 21, 2018

#BREAKING: @TurnbullMalcolm has returned to his Sydney home as the Liberal party is set to lose his former seat of Wentworth. #9News pic.twitter.com/LdMJGRGb3O

— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) October 21, 2018

malcolm and lucy turnbull board

Morrison yesterday confirmed that repeated approaches were made for Turnbull’s support during the campaign to hold his former seat but were turned down.

“Quite a number of us asked for that support, not necessarily in the form of a letter,” he said.

“There are many other ways in which people can choose to ­express their support.”

Even a plea from the replacement candidate for help left Turnbull unmoved. A key sticking point, apparently, was the ousted prime minister’s demand that any endorsement also rake over the uncomfortable reasons behind his own removal.

“There were even approaches made by Dave himself,” the Prime Minister said. “What impact they would have had, ultimately, is for others to judge.”

Michelle Landry, the Liberal National Party MP from Queensland, voiced her upset with Turnbull yesterday for failing to back Sharma in Wentworth. “He hasn’t supported Dave Sharma. He just left the parliament and I think that is wrong,” she told SBS.

Holding one of the most marginal seats in the country, Landry recalled how Turnbull had called her after the 2016 election to offer congratulations: “Michelle, you’ve saved the nation.”

Turnbull had proved anything but a saviour, the MP for Capricornia said, “so I’m pretty annoyed”.

Kerryn Phelps with her family Rob Chambers, Billy Chambers, and her daughter Jaime Chambers, on Saturday night. Picture: AAP

Nick Greiner, the former NSW Liberal premier who is now the party’s federal president, seemed equally perplexed yesterday at Turnbull’s “precious” behaviour.

“I understand his pain, anger, bitterness, whatever the emotions are — it’s a natural human response,” Greiner said.

“On the other hand, whether it possibly would have made a huge difference, I don’t know, but he could have tweeted something, in my judgment. There are understandable emotions behind him becoming precious, but he could have sent out a tweet that said ‘Sharma is the best candidate and you should vote for him’.”

👀

Guess who's back... https://t.co/Haq0beS6nv

— 2GB 873 (@2GB873) October 21, 2018

Tweeting from far-away New York on political matters during the Wentworth by-election campaign was apparently easy for Turnbull. Ten days after he jetted off to New York in early September, he made an unsolicited personal intervention in the furore of whether Peter Dutton was eligible to remain in parliament under section 44 of the Constitution because of his financial interest in two Brisbane childcare centres that had received $5.6 million in taxpayer-funded rebates.

“The point I have made to @ScottMorrisonMP and other colleagues is that given the uncertainty around Peter Dutton’s eligibility, acknowledged by the Solicitor-General, he should be referred to the High Court, as Barn­aby was, to clarify the matter,” Turnbull tweeted.

The tweet was most unhelpful for Morrison, who was trying to put the best opposite spin possible on the Solicitor-General’s advice saying Dutton was “not incapable” of sitting in parliament.

Morrison swung into gear, urging Turnbull to stop undermining his government. It wasn’t the first time that damaging claims and leaks about Morrison’s new team had surfaced.

Morrison’s office tried to hose down Turnbull, urging his supporters to tell the disgruntled former PM that he should desist.

Barnaby Joyce was direct. He accused Turnbull of campaigning to “remove us as the government” — and agreed it amounted to “wrecking and sniping”.

“What is the purpose behind an individual deciding that their goal now in life is to bring down the government which they weren’t just a member of — they were the leader of?” Joyce said on Sydney’s 2GB radio. “People say: ‘What is wrong with Malcolm Turnbull?’ I think we’re starting to find out.”

Asked if he believed Turnbull was seeking revenge, Joyce said: “If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, you’ve got a pretty good chance of saying it’s a duck.”

Turnbull retreated into silence at the $3.2 million apartment he owns with wife Lucy on New York’s upper west side, but not for long. His party critics say he must have known comments he made a fortnight later to a young leaders’ forum would leak. Turnbull declared he was not driven by hatred but nonetheless seized on the “crazy” Liberal leadership crisis, and hit out at his predecessors.

“When you stop being prime minister, that’s it,” Turnbull said. “There is no way I’d be hanging around like embittered Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott. Seriously, these people are like, sort of miserable, miserable ghosts.”

The gibe predictably stirred up Rudd and Abbott, but also turned the political heat on Morrison once again, in the midst of the Wentworth by-election campaign.

If there was any doubt about Turnbull’s keen interest in the Wentworth campaign, and suggestions he was interfering behind the scenes, his “like” last week of a Kerryn Phelps campaign worker’s tweet confirmed it.

The tweet had said: “Back handing out policy info and how-to-vote cards for Kerryn Phelps at Waverly Oval pre-polling station. No longer wondering ‘Where’s Malcolm?’ Just hoping for a strong independent win on Saturday.”

Was this Turnbull’s hope too? He did not expressly say. While he did remove the “like” soon after, there was still no late endorsement for the Liberals’ Sharma.

Then there was the social media intervention of Alex Turnbull, who lives in Singapore, where he runs his own hedge fund company. He posted many tweets and several online videos of himself throughout the campaign, first advocating a vote for Labor candidate Tim Murray and later appearing to switch to Phelps as she became the favourite. He was adamant his father’s party should not win.

As the by-election date neared, Morrison said he disagreed with Alex Turnbull and claimed on ABC radio, without evidence, that “His father Malcolm Turnbull is heavily supporting Dave Sharma, the only Liberal candidate running for Wentworth”.

Alex Turnbull also put out a remarkable list of those he rated the Liberal Party’s top five “crazy” MPs, headed by Abbott, whom he called a “singularly destructive human being”.

He said Dutton at No 2 was “obviously another one”, Angus Taylor at No 3 was a “champion of fossil fuels and determined opponent of renewables,” while Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz tied in fourth place as “hard-right faction leaders”.

Like his father in New York, he used the word “crazy” to describe the Liberals involved in Turnbull Sr’s downfall.

Alex denied he was acting as a “proxy”, telling the ABC he was absolutely not doing his father’s dirty work. “He’s a private citizen, I’m a private citizen, we can both do as we please,” he said.

He said he was advocating a vote against his father’s party because of its inaction on climate change, and no longer felt obliged to stay silent after his father’s exit from politics.

Greiner says the intervention of Turnbull’s son in the Wentworth by-election was “unusual” but he recalled his own daughter commenting on his own departure from politics in stormy times. “Young master Turnbull can do whatever he likes. That’s a matter for him,” Greiner said.

In the last week of the by-­election campaign, Morrison and Sharma made a final plea to Turnbull to record a “robocall” that could be sent out to the voters of Wentworth in an effort to tip the scales the Liberals’ way.

Turnbull refused.

Morrison then decided to ask John Howard to fulfil the role. Howard not only agreed to record a robocall, he spent a day on the hustings.

Howard is believed to think Turnbull could have avoided the mess in Wentworth by remaining on the backbench until the general election. One party insider put it this way: “Howard believes he owes the Liberal Party. Apparently Turnbull doesn’t take the same ­approach.”