Tony Abbott has given an explosive interview to The Daily Telegraph, criticising Malcolm Turnbull and telling the Australian public his own policy manifesto (not that any of us actually asked for it).
It includes freezing the renewable energy target, slashing immigration numbers in a bid to improve housing affordability, cutting government spending (which, cough, was terrible when he was at the helm) and abolishing the Human Rights Commission.
Sky News then reported Abbott had told Liberal defector Cory Bernardi that he hadn’t given up hope of returning to leadership.
But he won’t be challenging Turnbull for it… yet.
Sky News reports the former PM told Senator Bernardi he would not challenge for leadership as the public would never accept another round of ‘political cannibalism’.
This new information, along with the scathing attack on Turnbull does not sit well with some MPs, even those who were his biggest supporters.
Finance minister Matthias Cormann did not mince his words, calling his former boss “sad”.
“I was flabbergasted by Tony Abbott’s interview last night,” he told Sky News. “I was watching live from my office in Perth. There’s nothing good that comes from an interview like that. It was deliberately destructive. It was completely unhelpful. It was not designed to be helpful. He was not trying to help our cause or help our country.”
Turnbull says he won’t be “provoked” by Abbott”
“Tony Abbott is a very experienced politician. He knows exactly what he’s doing and so do his colleagues.”
Could things be about to take a messy turn in terms of who’s leading our country… again?
