It was a political rivalry so utterly self-destructive that one cabinet minister compared it to being “strapped to a suicide bomber”.
“The Turnbull-Abbott tussle was very torrid, not just for the Liberal Party internally, but for the government more generally for years and years and years,” says former Coalition minister Bridget McKenzie. “You knew something horrific and catastrophic was going to happen.”
In interviews for the ABC political docuseries Nemesis, dozens of former Coalition ministers and MPs have spoken of the toxic rivalry between Liberal giants Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and how their relentless internecine conflict crippled both men’s governments and helped destroy each other’s political careers.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Malcolm and Tony saw each other as the two greatest rivals in the party for the leadership,” says long-time Liberal cabinet minister Christopher Pyne, who served under both men.
Only the fourth Liberal leader to take the party from opposition to government, Abbott – the country’s 28th prime minister – was voted out by his colleagues just shy of two years in the top job.
While Turnbull, the successful challenger, moved to address the party room, his vanquished opponent walked away from the leadership table and found a seat next to Queensland Liberal Karen Andrews.
The National Energy Guarantee (NEG) was one of Turnbull’s signature policies, and one designed to end the climate wars that had crippled the Coalition for years.
"We were seeking to simultaneously achieve a triple objective — lower electricity prices, a more stable grid and a smaller carbon footprint.
“On the 13th of August 2018, the backbench committee, which was charged with considering legislation before it went to the full party room, met to consider the NEG,” says former Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman.
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