George Brandis has accused his former cabinet colleague Ian Macfarlane of “gaming the system” and keeping local branch members in the dark about his defection plans when he was re-endorsed just two weeks ago.
The attorney general and leader of the government in the Senate said Macfarlane was improperly trying to force Malcolm Turnbull to bring on a cabinet reshuffle by swapping from the Liberals to the Nationals in a scheme that had “left a very bad taste in people’s mouths”.
Brandis, who is the most senior Liberal to publicly criticise Macfarlane over the power play that was revealed on the final parliamentary sitting day of the year, said on Sunday it would be “unthinkable” for the Queensland MP’s manoeuvring to force someone like Josh Frydenberg out of a portfolio.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, seized on the divisions as a sign of “a Coalition in crisis”. Shorten said the involvement of the deputy prime minister and the leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss, in the plotting was particularly damaging for Turnbull.
Macfarlane, who was dumped as industry and science minister in September, began talking to Truss shortly after Turnbull’s post-spill reshuffle. He has not hidden his ambition to return to the frontbench after confirming on Thursday that he was seeking the approval of the federal divisional council for his regional electorate of Groom to move to the Nationals’ party room.
While the conservative parties are merged into the Liberal National Party (LNP) in Queensland, federal representatives sit in either the Liberal or National party rooms in Canberra. The LNP executive will have to decide whether to allow the switch.
At a media conference in Sydney on Sunday, Turnbull declined to comment on what he described as “internal Coalition matters” and said he was entirely focused on governing.
But Brandis called on Macfarlane to explain his lack of openness with local LNP branch members a fortnight ago when he was endorsed as the candidate for Groom at the next election “on the explicit understanding that he would sit in the Liberal Party room”.
“We now know that this plan had been in being for weeks before that,” Brandis told Network Ten’s Bolt Report on Sunday.
“I think that, frankly, the branch members of the LNP who endorsed Mr Macfarlane on that understanding are entitled to ask him why he didn’t reveal to them that he had these plans in place at the time he sought their endorsement to sit as a Liberal in the federal parliament.”
Brandis said while Nationals were entitled to their share of ministries linked to the number of MPs in each Coalition party, “no backbencher can force a cabinet reshuffle on a prime minister by swapping parties in order to game the system”.
When asked about claims Macfarlane was pushing for the resources portfolio, Brandis said Frydenberg was a “rising young star” who should retain the ministry.
“The thought that he could be put out of a job that he has already taken to with agility, if I can use the word du jour, and huge intelligence, is unthinkable,” he said.
Brandis is not the first Liberal to accuse Macfarlane of seeking to “game” the system for advancement, but his criticism carries added weight because of his seniority.
In the last few days, the Victorian Liberal backbencher Dan Tehan used similar terminology to denounce Macfarlane’s “naked ambition”, while the Queensland backbencher Ewen Jones likened the MP to the former speaker Peter Slipper who had also abandoned his party for a job.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, who is a fellow Queenslander, told Sky News the defection was not “a fait accompli” given it still needed to clear party processes.
Christopher Pyne, who assumed Macfarlane’s industry and science portfolios in September, suggested he should have accepted his dumping because he had already had “a pretty good run in the cabinet”. The minister for cities, Jamie Briggs, was also critical but described Macfarlane’s behaviour as “completely in character”.
I'm actually quite surprised that people are shocked my Ian Macfarlene's behaviour, it's completely in character.
— Jamie Briggs (@BriggsJamie) December 4, 2015
Despite speculation about a looming meeting between Turnbull and Truss to discuss ministerial allocations, Guardian Australia understands the prime minister is likely to push back at pressure for a swift reshuffle.
Internally, the widely accepted catalyst for changes would be a decision by Truss on his own political future - an announcement that the leader of the Nationals has foreshadowed “in due course”.
Shorten sought to link Macfarlane’s defection to Turnbull’s decision to elevate Mal Brough to the position of special minister of state in September.
Labor has devoted the final parliamentary sitting fortnight of the year to pursuing Brough about his role in Slipper’s downfall, after the Australian federal police executed a search warrant of the minister’s home as part of an investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of the former speaker’s official diary.
“Why is Malcolm Turnbull hanging on, fighting tooth and nail to keep Mal Brough yet he demoted Ian Macfarlane,” Shorten asked during an interview on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
The Labor leader suggested the Macfarlane issue could be “an even bigger crisis for the Liberals than the Brough matter” because it reflected deeper disunity within the government.
Shorten said the deputy prime minister had been negotiating with Macfarlane to change parties despite knowing it would embarrass and anger the prime minister.
Turnbull could either reward the undermining with another cabinet spot and “make all the younger Liberals very angry” or deny the request and exacerbate Coalition tensions, Shorten said.
“I’m sure they will be working overtime to paper over the cracks, but this is the first visible fault line of a government which is bitterly divided. I think that’s a Coalition in crisis,” he said.
On Saturday the Nationals senator Matt Canavan said Macfarlane had denied reports he had offered to stay in the Liberals in return for his old cabinet position. But Macfarlane has indicated he would seek a position if there was a vacancy, on the basis of merit.
The defection is set to increase the number of Nationals MPs and senators from 21 to 22, setting the scene for the Nationals to argue for an extra frontbench position at the expense of the Liberals.
The Nationals say the Coalition agreement links the number of ministerial positions to the ratio of members of each party, and Macfarlane’s move tips the balance in favour of another spot for the junior Coalition partner.
The prime minister is ultimately responsible for selecting the ministry, but conventionally decides on National party appointees in consultation with the leader of the party.
