Turnbull’s NY tirade
Ousted PM tells ‘miserable ghosts’ Rudd, Abbott to move on
Malcolm Turnbull (right) has described former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd as “miserable ghosts” and taken aim at his former colleagues for “blowing up” the Government. Speaking to young leaders in New York, Mr Turnbull made scathing remarks about the “crazy” Liberal leadership crisis.
MALCOLM Turnbull has described former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd as “miserable ghosts” and taken aim at his former colleagues for “blowing up” the government.
Speaking to young leaders in New York on Friday, Mr Turnbull made scathing remarks about the “crazy” Liberal leadership crisis that led to his eviction in August.
Mr Turnbull pointed out he was behind 51 to 49 per cent in the published polls but was actually ahead by four points in internal tracking polls across 40 marginal seats.
“But for reasons that they’ve not been able to explain, you know, there was an element of the party and of the media that wanted to blow the government up, and they did,” he said in a recording of his remarks obtained by Nine News.
“And of course, they didn’t get their guy up, they got ScoMo (Scott Morrison).”
Referring to Mr Abbott and Mr Rudd, Mr Turnbull said it was important not to be driven by hate.
“When you stop being prime minister, that’s it,” he 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. Move on.”
Mr Turnbull made light of the poor recording after “embittered” was variously mistaken for limpet and lipid.
“I hate to spoil a good lipid or limpet (or lipidinous limpet) story – but the adjective mistaken for, variously, an indissoluble fat or a tenacious sea slug is ‘embittered’,” the former prime minister tweeted.
Federal Labor MP Anne Aly agrees with Mr Turnbull’s character assessments but says she wouldn’t necessarily adopt his choice of words.
“I do think it’s disappointing to a lot of Australians when you see this kind of white-anting from people within their own parties,” the Western Australia MP told Sky News.