Dutton: Turnbull Doesn’t Have A Political Bone In His Body
Four months after losing the leadership spill he instigated, Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has broken his silence in an extraordinary spray at Malcolm Turnbull. Calling the deposed Australian prime minister spiteful and indecisive, Mr Dutton said Mr Turnbull had brought about his own downfall because he “doesn’t have a political bone in his body”. “Malcolm had a plan to become prime minister but no plan to be prime minister,” Mr Dutton told Brisbane’s The Sunday Mail.
He also criticised the former leader for actions he saw as undermining the Morrison Government.
“I am the first to defend the legacy of the Turnbull government,” Mr Dutton said.
“Malcolm was strong on economic management, borders and national security, but Malcolm will trash his own legacy if he believes his position is strengthened by seeing us lose under Scott [Morrison].” He excoriated Mr Turnbull for not supporting the Liberal Party’s candidate in the latter’s former seat of Wentworth. “Walking away from Wentworth and not working to have [Liberal Wentworth candidate] Dave Sharma elected was worse than any behaviour we saw even under [former Labor prime minister Kevin] Rudd,” Mr Dutton said. Stating emphatically that he was not a stalking horse for former leader Tony Abbott or a right-wing “Bible basher”, Mr Dutton said Mr Turnbull lost the Liberal Party 15 seats in the 2016 election.
“In 2016, Malcolm ran the worst campaign in Liberal Party history, and we ended up losing 15 seats and were left with a one-seat majority which just made the Parliament unmanageable. We were paralysed,” he said.