Malcolm Turnbull has revealed he knocked back an offer to be Australia’s next ambassador to the United States earlier this year and that he has traded text messages with Tony Abbott since replacing him as prime minister, but the pair have still not spoken.
“We have had some have exchanges by text, but no chats,” he said. Asked whether he and Abbott would “make up”, he replied: “There’s nothing personal, nothing personal, it’s just business.”
In an interview on Melbourne radio, Turnbull confirmed reports he was sounded out about the ambassador’s job earlier this year, but suggested he did not give it any serious consideration.
“I was and I declined ... regardless of whether I was the prime minister, whatever my situation, I cannot imagine a situation where I would want to be an ambassador, with all due respect to ambassadors ... it’s not my cup of tea,” Turnbull said.
Abbott has given several radio interviews since he was ousted as prime minister. Asked in one about Turnbull, he said pointedly: “I might exercise the former prime minister’s prerogative of silence – there’s obviously been a lot of dirty water under the bridge.
“I have often said Malcolm didn’t stay in government to be somebody else’s minister.”
Turnbull used his 3AW interview to continue to differentiate himself from his predecessor in tone, if not yet in substantive policy changes.
He sought to lower the temperature of the debate over reductions to Sunday penalty rates, saying it was in the first instance an issue for the Fair Work Commission, but also that it was important to negotiate any changes with unions so they were persuaded workers were not worse off overall.
“I think over time you will see a move to a more flexible workplace ... you do nonetheless have unions and workers who are naturally reluctant to give up benefits they have and any reform has got to be able to demonstrate that people are not going to be worse off and overall, ideally, in net terms better off ... it is important for someone in my position as prime minister to be able to empathise with the position of employers and workers and to understand that each have legitimate claims,” he said.
“If you want to get the support of workers and of unions ... to changes like that then inevitably you would have to persuade them in net terms they are better off ... If you put yourself in the shoes of a union official and you have someone saying ‘I want you to give up certain conditions or work practices which are inflexible or create inefficiencies’, then you as the union organiser would say, ‘I would only consider that if I was better off or at least no worse off’.”
Turnbull declined to use the former prime minister’s term “death cult’ for Islamic State (Isis), or Daesh, saying he would choose his own language for what was a “violent, extremist terrorist organisation which is a threat both regionally and globally”.
He confirmed the government was still considering the controversial laws to strip citizenship from dual nationals and the recent recommendations for substantial amendments from the joint committee on intelligence and security.
