Malcolm Turnbull criticises Scott Morrison in new book, A Bigger Picture
Malcolm Turnbull has openly criticised Scott Morrison in his scandalous new book, accusing him of backstabbing and leaking.
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Malcolm Turnbull has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of playing an “audaciously duplicitous game” in the Liberals’ leadership wars, protesting public support while busily orchestrating Tony Abbott’s downfall and later plotting to raise the GST.
In his new memoir, A Bigger Picture, Mr Turnbull provides a forensic analysis of his successor’s attempts to paint himself as an innocent bystander to the plot to tear down a prime minister.
His brutal conclusion: Mr Morrison was up to his neck in it.
Revealing private conversations, text messages and WhatsApp chats with his former colleagues, Mr Turnbull writes that Mr Morrison was one of the first to abandon Mr Abbott as PM and also wanted then treasurer Joe Hockey sacked for political incompetence.
Barely a year after the 2013 election, Mr Turnbull writes Mr Morrison was already plotting the downfall of Mr Abbott.
“I had dinner with Morrison down in his electorate on 10 December. It was the first time he laid out, fairly comprehensively, his thinking on Abbott, who he felt would have to go by the middle of 2015 if his performance didn’t improve,” he writes.
“He said Hockey should go now and he was making the case to Abbott to replace him with me (as treasurer). And he made it clear he saw himself as the successor.”
Not long afterwards, the pair again discussed dumping Mr Abbott as prime minister.
“Morrison was playing an audaciously duplicitous game, protesting publicly that he supported Abbott while busily working to bring him down,’’ he writes.
“Morrison had been muttering to me about Abbott for a while, but this was the first time I recall him saying, ‘We will need to remove him before the budget,’” he writes.
By Christmas 2014, Mr Turnbull said it was clear the Abbott Government was in big trouble.
Complaining about attending the Christmas party at Kirribilli House he writes, “Usual grisly crew of right-wing nut jobs, ministers, senior civil servants and supporters. To avoid the traffic and amuse myself, I took a water taxi there and surprised everyone by emerging through the garden.”
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Mr Turnbull also reveals how Mr Morrison used trusted intermediaries as witnesses to discuss the leadership wars and to run errands.
“Scott Morrison had asked me for a private meeting with him and Scott Briggs, our mutual friend and political ally. Briggs, who’d helped me on the Wentworth preselection contest, was both a friend and neighbour of Morrison,’’ Mr Turnbull writes.
“We met for dinner at my place on 19 January. To my surprise, Morrison was advanced in his planning to overthrow Abbott and said the change should happen before the Easter break.”
But rather than pushing Mr Turnbull as the likely successor, he writes that Mr Morrison fancied himself as the heir apparent and tried to sideline Julie Bishop.
“He was concerned about Julie’s ambitions. I tried to assure him she had no interest in playing Lady Macbeth and, in my opinion, she wasn’t convinced she should run for leader at all. Morrison said he thought he should succeed Abbott but didn’t want to be seen to challenge him. He felt the right-wing commentators (by whom he meant Alan Jones and Ray Hadley) would never support me,’’ Mr Turnbull writes.
Mr Turnbull writes that Ms Bishop, the former foreign minister and deputy Liberal leader, “loathed Abbott and wanted him gone”.
After the leadership change, managing the egos in the cabinet was a major issue.
“Cormann and Dutton told me not to trust Julie and George. Julie, George and Christopher Pyne told me not to trust Cormann and Dutton. Barnaby told me not to trust any of them, and everybody told me not to trust Morrison,’’ he writes.
The former PM also reveals that Mr Morrison was keen to dump the company tax cuts when he served as treasurer and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann was frustrated.
“Mathias and I were at our wits’ end as to how to manage Scott,’’ Mr Turnbull writes.
“As Mathias said, ‘We have a Treasurer problem.’ And the problem was one of trust.”
But he also reveals Mr Morrison plotted behind the scenes to reform the GST, negative gearing and even allowing workers to use superannuation for a housing deposit to the dismay of Senator Cormann.
“Morrison grew bolder with his push for an increase of the GST – a point noted by many in the gallery, who’d begun to write columns suggesting Scott and I weren’t on the same page,’’ Mr Turnbull writes.
A source of ongoing tension was that Mr Turnbull believed Mr Morrison was briefing journalists about what happened in cabinet meetings.
“Never was this more apparent than on 1 November 2015 when the News Corp Sunday tabloids had splashed across their front page, ‘15 per cent GST’! It was news to me when I woke up to read the papers.
“Naturally, it spooked the backbench, had various industry groups up in arms and gave Labor a free hit into the highest-rating news of the week, the 6pm Sunday-night bulletin. But the story was correct.
“Cormann would often swear me to secrecy lest Morrison find out. I didn’t always oblige him, but it wasn’t easy managing the pair of them as their mutual distrust grew.”
During one confrontation over leaks, he writes that Mr Morrison came close to offering his resignation.
“I was very blunt with the cabinet and in remarks clearly directed at Morrison made it plain the lack of discipline and the leaking had to stop,’’ he said.
“I was very emphatic. I have spoken to Morrison again and again about this and it was important the cabinet see that I am putting my foot down. He has to be, and be seen to be, on notice. He almost offered his resignation to me afterwards but didn’t. In my study here at The Lodge we agreed to go forward but strictly on the basis that we agree on matters like this privately and then announce. No more frontrunning.”
The flare-ups continued to cause controversy with colleagues, including in 2017 when Mr Morrison wanted to allow workers to use super contributions for first home deposits.
“Mathias Cormann, on the other hand, was adamantly opposed to any change to negative gearing, capital gains tax or allowing super contributions to be used for first-home owners’ deposits,” Mr Turnbull writes.
“Between the three of us, there was a very robust argument. Scott claimed that the rising levels of housing debt were a threat to our AAA rating and we needed to curb negative gearing to protect it. Mathias was shocked that we’d consider abolishing negative gearing less than a year after we’d won an election promising not to do so.”
He also thought the “super for housing” idea was plain crazy telling Mr Turnbull: “ScoMo has wanted to bully us into a position on this for a very long time. He wanted to do it last year and irrespective of what we argued in the lead-up to the election he immediately revisited it after the election.”
Mr Turnbull writes: “Scott’s bullying started to rattle Cormann. The relationship between the two was becoming tense.
“Mathias and I agreed we had to make sure Scott was a success. We had to recognise he was brittle emotionally and easily offended.
“At a practical level we both sought to ensure, as tactfully as possible, that he stayed out of negotiations with the Senate. He had a blustering manner that could easily be mistaken for bullying and was often counter-productive.”
Mr Morrison has declined to comment on the book’s content, saying he’s focused on Australia’s coronavirus response.
Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull criticises Scott Morrison in new book, A Bigger Picture