Morrison manoeuvres, Abbott aggro, Trump tantrum: Turnbull’s time in office laid bare in ABC show
Malcolm Turnbull has spoken frankly about his time as prime minister in the latest episode of the ABC documentary Nemesis, saying his successor Scott Morrison was capable of saying “utterly untrue” things, calling Peter Dutton a “thug” and recalling that Tony Abbott promised to be “very fucking difficult” as revenge for being ousted by Turnbull in a coup in 2016.
Tracing from Turnbull’s ill-fated election campaign in 2016 that saw the loss of many seats, to the infamous phone call with Donald Trump on the refugee deal, the “climate wars”, the scandal around Barnaby Joyce’s affair with an employee, and his own ousting in 2018 – this is what we learned in Nemesis episode two.
Morrison says ‘utterly untrue’ things: Turnbull
A key thread running through the episode was Turnbull and Morrison’s assessments of one another.
The famous press conference where Morrison put his arm around Turnbull, proclaiming “I’m ambitious for him”, just hours before Turnbull was turfed and Morrison ascended to the top job, was seen differently by the two men.
Morrison said: “I can do that. I’ll hug. I’ll shake hands. I’m a bit like that… that moment has been misinterpreted unkindly to the genuine friendship we had.”
Turnbull didn’t give a direct recount of his feelings at the time, but said: “I’ve seen Scott say so many things that are utterly untrue. He can look you dead in the eye and say something completely opposite to what he’s really thinking.”
Russell Broadbent, the former Liberal MP who now sits on the crossbench, says he described Morrison in 2018 as an “arrogant arsehole” and “smug”.
In a word association game, Morrison described Turnbull as: “was a friend.. maybe one day will be again”. Turnbull, for his part, described Morrison as “duplicitous” – and Peter Dutton as a “thug”.
Turnbull and his allies accused Morrison, his treasurer, of leaking policy proposals to the media early in the administration.
Turnbull could ‘over-engineer’: Pyne
The 2016 election, where Turnbull set up a scenario for a double dissolution election, was a disaster. The Coalition lost 14 seats and barely hung on to government. Christopher Pyne, a Turnbull minister, claimed “one of the things about Malcolm is he’s got a big brain… [but] sometimes he could over-engineer something.”
Colleagues bagged the double dissolution decision, and the eightweek election. Pyne commented: “long
elections in Australia never end well.” Linda Reynolds said “it was madness”; Russell Broadbent said “it’s suicidal.”
The election night speech from Turnbull, where he angrily railed against Labor’s “Mediscare” campaign, was also criticised heavily. Reynolds called it “truculent, childish and embarrassing”.
Abbott promised to be ‘very fucking difficult’: Turnbull
Another obvious thread was Turnbull’s relationship with Abbott, the man he turfed out of office. Turnbull said he “simply couldn’t trust Abbott”, despite entreaties from former leader John Howard to bring him into the fold.
David Bold, a Turnbull staffer, claimed Abbott began a “textbook program of shit throwing – and you can understand why he did it”.
Turnbull claimed Abbott threatened to be “very fucking difficult” for the new prime minister, unless his ideas were listened to.
Abbott didn’t appear in the series so didn’t get a chance to respond oncamera to those remarks.
‘Two Malcolms’
Turnbull’s assistant minister, James McGrath, claimed there were “two Malcolms”: a “good Malcolm”, and a “bad Malcolm”, who he described as “one of the ... .. the nastiest people I’ve come across in politics”.
Several colleagues painted a similar picture. His attorney-general, George Brandis, a supporter, said he could be an “extremely charming person, but he could also be very savage”. James Paterson called Turnbull “a brilliant, intelligent person, and he finds it very difficult to hide that when he feels that the people around him aren’t as equally brilliant as he is”.
Asked if there were “two Malcolms”, Turnbull himself responded: “No, but there are a couple of people who’ve popularised that concept.”
‘Tough call’ with Trump
Brandis claimed Turnbull was one of the only world leaders who could deal with US president Donald Trump. On the infamous phone call about the refugee swap between Australia and America, Turnbull said he’d never done business with Trump before, but “obviously
I knew all about him.”
“Big, bullying billionaires, they all think they’re God’s gift to humanity, and if you suck up to them or knuckle under, they just want more,” Turnbull said.
He claimed vice president Mike Pence had told foreign minister Julie Bishop that Trump was against the refugee swap, and recommended Turnbull not raise it. Turnbull raised it anyway, describing one of his advisers listening to the call as “white as a sheet”.
“[Trump] was very angry, we had quite a row about it,” Turnbull claimed.
“It started off, ‘no way, Jose,’ and ended up, ‘yes, but I hate you.’ I got the right outcome but it was a pretty tough call.”
Marriage equality
Warren Entsch, the Queensland backbencher who was one of the champions of the marriage equality push, had made the first and second reading speeches introducing the bill to legislate the change. He said that, as the bill got to the final stage, it was requested that Turnbull got to make the third reading speech, immediately preceding the final vote.
Entsch said he was “pissed off” that Turnbull got to make the third reading speech. He said he ripped up his original speech, and was “very pissed” when Turnbull made the address instead.
Turnbull called Entsch “an ungracious guy”.
Trevor Evans, another Queensland Liberal champion of the reform, said marriage equality was one of the crowning achievements of Turnbull’s time as prime minister – but added “Malcolm was not the active participant in making it happen that history reflects that he would maybe hope”.
Joyce said he ‘lied’ to Turnbull about relationship
On his relationship with Vikki Campion – then on his staff, now his wife – deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said he “definitely lied” to Turnbull as the scandal grew.
“Because it wasn’t his right to know. How many other people in this building are you asking about their personal life?” Joyce said, adding that the situation was a “total nightmare”.
After Turnbull’s press conference where he said Joyce had made a “shocking error of judgement” and announced the infamous “bonk ban”, Joyce said he was furious.
“In my previous life, I’d been a bouncer in a pub, and I was very close to returning to that field of endeavour. I was thinking, ‘you can’t do stuff like that’,” Joyce said.
“I didn’t see him as the prime minister then. I just saw him as an idiot.”
Turnbull admitted in the series that he may have been “somewhat harsher in the criticism than I needed to” – but then, reconsidering, he added “I think it’s about right”.
Liberals laugh at ‘the NEG’
Turnbull’s signature energy policy, the national energy guarantee (or Neg), was a source of mirth among some MPs interviewed. Climate sceptic Craig Kelly, senator Michaelia Cash and Nationals MP Keith Pitt laughed when it was brought up.
Turnbull recalls Abbott describing the Neg as a “crock of shit”. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie claimed Abbott described it as “merchant banker gobbledegook”.
A story was recounted about Abbott joining a backbench committee to which Turnbull made a presentation about the energy plan, with claims Abbott interrupted several times. Turnbull is said to have told Abbott: “If you’d just let me finish my sentence.”
To which Abbott is said to be replied: “You should have let me finish my prime ministership.”
Sussan Ley said Turnbull “couldn’t unite” the partyroom on energy, claiming a group of Nationals “made a strategic decision to blow this up”.
Joyce, responding to the claim, said: “She’s wrong... Eh, I don’t know. Yeah maybe she’s right.”
Colleagues shocked by Turnbull spill
In the final days of Turnbull’s time in office, then-backbencher Hastie claimed “the room stopped breathing for about three seconds” when Turnbull pre-emptively spilled the leadership in a bid to flush Peter Dutton out.
Karen Andrews claimed Turnbull “blew himself up”, and that the spill decision “fatally wounded” him.
Morrison denied he’d asked any of his lieutenants to start whipping votes on his behalf in the aftermath of the spill vote. He claimed he was “focused on getting Malcolm through the week”.
‘Keystone cops’ coup
Pyne spoke about how Dutton’s key supporters held meetings in the “monkeypod room” meeting space in the ministerial wing of Parliament House – a fact he was tickled about, because it was right next to his office. Pyne claimed he could hear some of the plotting through the wall.
Some of Turnbull’s key supporters such as Pyne and Morrison said they’d counselled him to let politicians return home, once the controversial decision to suspend parliament had been made. Morrison said, “to his credit”, Turnbull decided not to – but that Morrison said the decision basically doomed Turnbull’s leadership.
“I’ve got to get busy,” Morrison said he told Turnbull.
“I made up my mind that I was going to run… There was about 24 hours, and I had my ear to a phone for pretty much all that time.”
Morrison later denied Turnbull’s claim that his supporters had played a “double game” in the spill votes.
“None of us knew the vote was on… there was no way to possibly discuss it,” Morrison claimed.
“I don’t run a faction in the Liberal party. I don’t control numbers. There are people who supported me, but they had their own views about Malcolm. We were very good friends. I sought to support his government right up to the end.”