Malcolm Turnbull is at it again. The former prime minister, knifed by Scott Morrison in 2018, is urging voters to pick independents over Liberals.
“Even if the members of a political party cannot escape from the thrall of the dominant faction, their traditional supporters in the electorate can do so by voting for an independent who has a real chance of success,” Turnbull reportedly told an audience at the Washington Harvard Club.
It’s the latest, and by far the strongest, attack on the Morrison government by the former PM, who is spending the election period sequestered in the United States and had previously refused to say whether he’d be voting for Dave Sharma in his old electorate of Wentworth.
In the speech, reported by Nine papers this morning, Turnbull said moderate voices like his own had become marginalised in the Liberal Party since the 2018 spill, “especially on the toxic, controversial issue of climate change”.
Turnbull’s intervention will only add greater momentum to the throng of teal independents running in former Liberal strongholds like Wentworth on a platform of demanding stronger action on climate change and integrity in politics.
In many ways it was Turnbull’s demise in 2018 that laid the foundations for the current teal surge. The ex-PM epitomised the kind of urbane, affluent Liberal moderate, with socially progressive-fiscally conservative views, and a desire to do more on climate change.
Internecine conflict over emissions reduction within the Coalition party room led to the leadership spills that brought about Turnbull’s downfall, and Morrison’s ascendancy. Turnbull refused to campaign for the Liberals in the ensuing Wentworth byelection, and widespread anger over the coup saw independent Kerryn Phelps briefly gain the seat on a teal-tinged platform.
In Wentworth, Liberal MP Dave Sharma is struggling. So, too, are Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong, and Tim Wilson in Goldstein. The Liberals have all but ceded Warringah to independent Zali Steggall.
After his ousting, Turnbull maintained he would not hang around embittered like other “miserable ghosts” — a reference to other deposed prime ministers such as Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. But outside Parliament, Turnbull has become one of the Morrison government’s most vocal critics.
Initially, much of that criticism focused on the government’s approach to climate, which he says has been undermined by the same right-wing forces that helped precipitate his political demise.
In 2020, he appeared on the ABC Four Corners documentary “Inside the Canberra Bubble”, which first unveiled allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Christian Porter and Alan Tudge, inciting much anger from sitting Liberals.
More recently, Turnbull has savaged the Morrison government over both its handling of foreign affairs, and the prime minister’s character. In the aftermath of the AUKUS agreement, when French President Emmanuel Macron called Scott Morrison a liar, Turnbull backed Macron up.
“Oh, he’s lied to me on many occasions,” he said. “Scott has a reputation for telling lies.”
Like so many dethroned prime ministers before him, the years since the coup have only hardened Turnbull’s anger against the forces that overthrew him.
Turnbull’s words will carry real weight among some moderate Liberals in wealthy areas like Sydney’s east, concerned about climate but wavering on abandoning the Liberals. And if the teals can pick up a couple of seats on election night, Morrison’s hopes of a majority will be left hanging by a thread.
