NEWS Backstabbing laid bare
COALITION MPs have dished the dirt on each other in an explosive new documentary about knifing Malcolm Turnbull, detailing the “heated” fight which became a tipping point in the leadership spill.
A senior minister who backed Peter Dutton also claims the Home Affairs Minister “drove” the coup against Mr Turnbull and was gathering supporters for “quite some time” in the first episode of the Sky News miniseries Bad Blood/New Blood.
The documentary, which airs on Tuesday, reopens barely healed wounds in the Coalition just a week before parliament resumes, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison aims to start fresh with his newly formed government.
It reveals details of a “tense” exchange between Craig Laundy and his good friend Queensland MP Luke Howarth at Canberra’s Wild Duck restaurant on the Monday night of “spill week” in August 2018, which became a pivotal moment as Liberal MPs grappled with the decision to dump their leader.
“When I got there Craig said something like, ‘You’re not supporting this madness, are you’ and then we just had a frank discussion,” Howarth says. “It was pretty straightforward and honest. What I was going to suggest to Malcolm is that actually he resign.”
Mr Laundy, who retired as an MP this year, unleashes on “backstabbing” in politics.
“He and I had a very tense exchange, a heated exchange where he was saying, ‘Malcolm’s gotta go’ and I was saying, ‘Malcolm’s gotta stay,” he said.
Mr Laundy called Mr Turnbull immediately after the dinner to warn him there could be a move against him.
Mr Turnbull called a snap leadership spill the next morning, which he won, but it was the beginning of the end.
“You have Craig Laundy and Luke Howarth, who catch up for these dinners, sitting there and just going toe-to-toe over a glass of wine and a meal about whether they should dump the prime minister or not,” host David Speers said.
“This is how these big moments in Australian politics come about.”
Mr Dutton’s supporters are divided over his role but former trade and defence industry minister Steven Ciobo bluntly claims: “Peter drove this. Obviously, you need to have someone who is willing to, in many respects, take the bullets, and Peter was of the view that it was better that he put himself forward than to continue to wait for something to change.”
Bad Blood/New Blood premieres on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.30pm on Sky News on Foxtel.