By Brittany Chain, Political Correspondent For Daily Mail Australia
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Malcolm Turnbull’s stint as Prime Minister was not without controversy – having caused fractures within the Liberal party when he ousted Tony Abbott, only to find himself on the recieving end of that same betrayal just three years later.
The Turnbull-era government of 2015-2018 was scrutinised tonight in the second installment of ABC’s three-part docuseries ‘Nemesis’, tracking the Coalition years in Australia.
Follow along with Daily Mail Australia’s live blog of the program as it happened here.
Turnbull takes swipe at Cormann’s weight
Turnbull made a catty remark while watching footage back from 2018 in which Cormann publicly called on him to hand over the leadership.
‘Mathias has put on a lot of weight,’ he told ABC.
‘You know, since 2018. He looks very lean there.’
There is no love lost between the pair. After Cormann abandoned Turnbull in those final days of his leadership, he received a scathing text from the former PM.
It read: ‘Mathias, at a time when strength and loyalty were called for, you were weak and treacherous. You should be ashamed of yourself, and I well understand how disappointed your wife is in your conduct.’
Pictured here in 2018, the day Turnbull was referencing
Pictured here in November 2023
Final part of Nemesis to air next week – focusing on ‘duplicitous’ Scott Morrison
The second installment of Nemesis ended with a perfect segue into the final episode on the Morrison era of government.
This will undoubtedly touch on the Covid pandemic, the infamous Hawaii trip and Morrison’s multiple-ministry saga.
When asked to sum up Morrison in one word, and to wrap up the program tonight, Turnbull took a beat to consider his options.
‘Duplicitous,’ he settled on.
‘They were treating the government of Australia as a plaything’: Turnbull seems to forget he also took out a former PM
Turnbull has been disparaging of the decision to overthrow him as prime minister of Australia.
He criticised the conspirators for ‘treating the government of Australia as a plaything’, despite having done the same thing himself just a few years earlier.
‘I looked around the room and I wondered whether all of the people there understood the enormity of what they were doing,’ he said.
Morrison claims he made the decision to run for PM ‘in about 24 hours’
Morrison claims he only started campaigning for the top job after it became apparent that Malcolm Turnbull would not survive.
This paved the way for a three-way battle between Turnbull, Morrison and Dutton.
Julie Bishop also put her hand up for the job, but other camps were almost instantly briefing against her, arguing she’d never have the numbers to win – despite being the most popular politician in Australia at the time.
Morrison recalled spending ‘much of that time on the phone’, making calls to friends and allies in an attempt to secure their votes.
Behind the scenes, each camp was trying to do the sums to see if they had the numbers.
Scott Morrison assured both Turnbull and the public he was not plotting against him
Asked if he supported Turnbull, Morrison threw his arm over his colleague and assured the crowd: ‘This is my leader. I am ambitious for him.’
After 38 negative opinion polls, there was blood in the water in the Liberal party room.
Internally, some MPs were urging Peter Dutton, then Home Affairs Minister, to challenge Turnbull for the leadership.
In an attempt to nip it all in the bud and get ahead of the pack, Turnbull called a party room meeting and spilled the leadership himself – catching everybody in the room by surprise.
After a lengthy pause, Dutton stood to his feet.
Andrew Hastie recalled: ‘It’s almost as if the room stopped breathing for three seconds.’
Turnbull won the vote 48 to 35.
In spite of the win, the writing was on the wall for many of the people in the room that day. Turnbull’s wounds were ‘fatal’, Liberal insiders said.
Turnbull did what he could to shut down any further leadership challenges, revealing he told former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, ‘This is terrorism.’
‘Politics is personal’: Turnbull on Abbott
Turnbull and senior Coalition MPs recall Abbott joining a meeting on climate change in the midst of Turnbull’s prime ministership.
He spent much of the meeting ‘being very belligerent and aggressive’, describing the policy at hand as ‘a crock of s**t’.
When Turnbull asked him to stop interrupting and let him finish, Abbott hit back, ‘Well, Malcolm, you should have let me finish my prime ministership.’
Joyce calls Turnbull a ‘s**thead’ for holding press conference about his ‘personal matters’ – and accuses Morrison of plotting his demise
Barnaby Joyce has accused Scott Morrison of being the ‘architect’ of his downfall after news broke of his relationship with a staffer.
But he was also scathing of Turnbull’s involvement.
‘What on earth are you doing at the door of the prime minister’s office giving a public disclosure and discourse about another person’s private life? S**thead,’ he said.
Morrison instantly denied concocting the bonk ban, calling it ‘nonsense’, but said he was a vehement supporter of it.
‘He had a very enthusiastic supporter in me around that table,’ Morrison said.
‘I’ve been around Canberra a long time. I know it goes on and it destroys families. And this was a sensible, mature safeguard in an executive government.’
Turnbull agreed the bonk ban ‘was all him’.
‘One of the most impressive global leaders in the world’: Former attorney-general George Brandis
Former attorney-general George Brandis credited Turnbull with being ‘one of the most impressive global leaders in the world’ at the time, and praised his ability to handle then US president Donald Trump.
Brandis, and later Turnbull, recalled the negotiations the duo had over America’s commitment to take a number of people from Manus Island.
While Trump wanted to renege on the Obama-era agreement, Turnbull dug his heels in and, during an exceptionally tense phone call, managed to get Trump on board.
‘Trump is a bully and, as we know, the only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them,’ Brandis said.
‘Trump found in Turnbull somebody who could be as tough as he was.’
In turn, Turnbull described Trump as a ‘billionaire bully’.
‘He wasn’t as shopping centre-friendly as Tony’: John Howard
Former prime minister John Howard reflected on Malcolm Turnbull’s lengthy, eight-week election campaign, admitting he ‘wasn’t as shopping centre-friendly as Tony’.
Other politicians told the ABC he looked too ‘Mr Harborside Mansion’ to be roaming the streets of Penrith or Queensland.
Senator McGrath added: ‘Any time he came to Queensland, he lost us votes.’
Barnaby Joyce recalls ‘terminal’ moment in relationship with Turnbull
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce realised his relationship with Turnbull was ‘terminal’ when the PM publicly denounced his affair with staffer Vikki Campion.
The relationship became public in a front-page story in The Daily Telegraph, complete with pictures of a pregnant Ms Campion.
Turnbull held a press conference shortly thereafter, saying: ‘Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office.
‘In doing so he has set off a world of woe for [his wife and daughters] and appalled all of us.’
Joyce said of the conference: ‘I just thought, obviously this is terminal. Our relationship’s terminal now. It’s all over.’
Joyce recalled Turnbull confronting him about the rumours, but he ‘lied to him because it wasn’t his right to know’.
As a result of the indiscretion, Turnbull introduced the now-infamous ‘bonk ban’ which prevents ministers having sexual relationships with their staff.
‘Two Malcolm’s’: Senator James McGrath’s candid recollection of the former PM
Queensland senator James McGrath described the ‘two Malcolm’s’ which he experienced during the Coalition era.
‘There is the ‘Charming Malcolm’, who wants to sell you some junk bonds, and then there’s ‘Bad Malcolm’.
‘Bad Malcolm is one of the nastiest people I’ve come across in politics in how he speaks to people.’
Turnbull rallies against this description of him.
‘There are a couple of people who’ve popularised that concept. No, there’s only one me,’ he said.
‘I got into politics when I was 50. I was very much a grown-up, and a formed human being. And so I arrived in parliament as I was, warts and all.’
How would Malcolm Turnbull’s colleagues describe him?
In a preview article for the episode, interviewer Mark Willacy reveals he asked all of the politicians who participated in the program to describe each of the prime ministers in one word.
Turnbull, he said, was without a doubt the most polarising.
‘Intellect, cerebral, vision, hope, urbane, curious, charismatic, progressive, statesman, were some of the responses,’ he said.
‘Disappointing, narcissism, disloyal, superficial, ruthless, passenger, flawed, selfish, misguided, were some of the others.’
One thing they could all agree on, whether they loved or loathed him, was that he was always the smartest person in the room.
Scott Morrison played a part in taking down Abbott, Turnbull revealed
Speaking of their initial discussions to roll Abbott when the polls started to go south, Turnbull and Morrison had varied recollections.
Mr Turnbull said: ‘Scott was keen to get moving against Abbott. We had a series of meetings around that period. He was very concerned about Abbott’s prospects.
‘Scott is a very professional political tactician, and he can count.’
But Mr Turnbull said he was wary of Morrison, even then.
‘I know the guy, right? I’ve known him for years. I know how he operates. Scott’s dream sequence was for me to challenge Abbott, to lose, to be discredited as the disruptor, the challenger.
‘And then when Abbott continued to underperform, for Scott to come through the middle as the compromise candidate.’
Whereas, Morrison argued: ‘No, I don’t think I’d agree with the conclusion.
‘You know, people have discussions but can take away different conclusions.
‘We were in a difficult spot at that time, and, you know, there were assessments that things were not travelling well for us.
‘We needed to turn things around. That’s what we needed to do and I was keen to deal with that in the Cabinet.’
‘Democracy went out the door that day’: Russell Broadbent’s assessment of the coup
Backbencher Broadbent said he was disappointed in the outcome of the leadership spill when Malcolm Turnbull took over.
‘The Australian people chose Tony Abbott.
‘I believe when our party rolled Tony Abbott, that democracy went out the door that day.’
Another of Broadbent’s cutting one liners rounded out the first episode of the three part, series. He said: ‘If you take by the sword, you die by the sword.’
The first installment focused on the Abbott years of government from 2013 to 2015, right up until the point he was outsted by Malcolm Turnbull.
Turnbull spoke candidly about that moment in the last episode, revealing he reached out to Abbott after taking his job, conscious that he would have taken the loss hard.
‘He didn’t welcome my inquiries,’ he said.
‘He generally told me to f**k off. He had quite a few variations of that.’
Key Updates
Morrison claims he made the decision to run for PM ‘in about 24 hours’
Turnbull takes swipe at Cormann’s weight
Scott Morrison assured both Turnbull and the public he was not plotting against him
The tables turn on Turnbull: ‘This is terrorism’
‘One of the most impressive global leaders in the world’: Former attorney-general George Brandis
‘He wasn’t as shopping centre-friendly as Tony’: John Howard
Barnaby Joyce recalls ‘terminal’ moment in relationship with Turnbull
‘Two Malcolm’s’: Senator James McGrath’s candid recollection of the former PM
Scott Morrison played a part in taking down Abbott, Turnbull revealed
Malcolm TurnbullTony Abbott
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