Malcolm Turnbull lashes out against Liberal party's infighting
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has claimed the Liberal Party has encouraged voters to vote for independents in the upcoming federal election, arguing they can use their votes to spark change where members of the party cannot.
Mr Turnbull spoke at the Washington Harvard Club at 8am (AEST) this morning, where he encouraged Australians to use “direct, democratic action” by voting for independents.
“In many respects this may be the most interesting part of the whole election, because if more of these ‘teal’ independents win, it will mean the capture of the Liberal Party will be thwarted by direct, democratic action from voters,” Turnbull told the club, according to an advance copy of the speech shared with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
He concluded that “even if the members of a political party cannot escape from the thrall of the dominant faction, their traditional supporters in the electorate can do so by voting for an independent who has a real chance of success”.
Mr Turnbull also touched on arguments made by both political parties in the current election campaign, including the idea that voting for independents will cause instability and chaos.
“But, in truth, many parliaments, including Australia, have operated with stability and good effect with major parties requiring the support of independents or minor parties to pass legislation and, in fact, in our Senate that has always been the case,” he said in his speech.
“Formal coalitions are also very common, the Liberal Party has always been in a coalition with the (rurally based) National Party, for example.
“Political instability invariably comes from internal ructions within the major, governing parties, not from independents on the cross benches.”
Since his resignation from parliament in 2018, Mr Turnbull has been an incisive critic of his former party.
But, this speech comes as the first time he has weighed in on the federal election campaign after declining to say if he would vote for his Liberal representative last month.
When asked whether he would vote for Dave Sharma, the Liberal MP running for Mr Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth, Mr Turnbull said both Mr Sharam and independent candidate Allegra Spender were “very good” options, per news.com.au.
Mr Turnbull was also expected to touch on the changes in the Liberal Party’s beliefs from being a broad collection of liberal and conservative beliefs prior to his 2018 “deposition” to the marginalisation of moderate voices currently.
He hit out at both members of the “political right” in the party and claimed that Rupert Murdoch’s media supported them in opposing “effective action for many years”.
Having previously backed former PM Kevin Rudd’s call for a royal commission into Murdoch’s influence on Australian politics, Mr Turnbull took time in his speech to criticise the media giant for legitimising “the type of crazy fact-free, conspiracy-laden content that used to be the preserve of social media alone”.
“Australia has not been immune to this,” his speech reads. “Rupert Murdoch has the largest voice in Australia’s media. His outlets, to differing extents, have gone down the same populist partisan track as Fox News. Sky News Australia is the local Murdoch-owned subscription television service and has essentially the same model as Fox.
“We are learning that merely elevating truthful content will not be enough to change our current course. We are drowning in lies.”
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