Abbott preparing a challenge, says Labor
LABOR Senator Sam Dastyari has claimed Tony Abbott is positioning himself to challenge Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal leadership.
Senator Dastyari yesterday predicated Mr Turnbull would not last any more than 18 months as Prime Minister.
“We had the exact same conversations about Kevin Rudd and we were saying, ‘It can’t happen, it can’t happen, and it happened’. Tony Abbott thinks it can happen,” he said.
“This isn’t not premedi- tated; he’s not walking around giving these speeches, building up these issues, reminding people he’s around, talking about his legacy, for any reason other than this is a guy who’s having another tilt,” Senator Dastyari said.
His comments came the morning after Labor stormed to a landslide victory in the Northern Territory, and on the eve of a new session of parliament.
On Friday, Mr Abbott gave a speech at a construction business forum in Melbourne, saying the Government’s priorities should be to reel in the budget deficit and re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Corporation.
Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull have contested the leadership on multiple occasions.
In December 2009 Mr Abbott defeated Mr Turnbull in a party room ballot by one vote when the party was in opposition.
In February last year a leadership spill motion against Mr Abbott was defeated, but Mr Turnbull successfully challenged Mr Abbott seven months later.