Malcolm Turnbull has warned that politicians must resist being “bullied” by media figures such as Alan Jones and instead win the respect of the public by standing their ground.
The communications minister, who was widely expected to run for the Liberal leadership if Monday’s spill motion against Tony Abbott had succeeded, said politicians should stand up for their beliefs and “not be bullied into an echo chamber”.
The warning came as Abbott tried to put Monday’s defeated spill motion behind him, and told his party room that if any staff from the prime minister’s office were briefing the media against members of parliament it would be a “sackable offence”.
The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, said leadership spills were “so yesterday”, but lent weight to critics of Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, by saying the prime minister must respond to criticism of his staffing arrangements “if they are valid concerns”.
Turnbull took a thinly veiled swipe at Abbott when asked during question time on Tuesday about an interview the communications minister conducted last year with Jones.
The influential conservative radio presenter has repeatedly used his broadcasts to defend Abbott’s leadership and to question Turnbull’s loyalty. In the June 2014 interview, Jones accused Turnbull of being “happy to throw a few bombs around that might blow up Abbott a bit” and told Turnbull he had no chance of returning to the leadership.
“The truth of the matter is interviews with Alan Jones are always entertaining, always entertaining,” Turnbull told parliament on Tuesday.
“It’s important not to be bullied by him. I must say that over the years the great mistake that politicians have made – including, as the member for Watson [Tony Burke] knows, a Labor premier of NSW – is to allow yourself to be bullied by the media.
“It’s vital to win the respect of the public and indeed of the media itself, to stand your ground and stand up for what you believe in and not be bullied into an echo chamber.”
Turnbull was responding in parliament to a question from Labor about his comments in the June 2014 interview that he supported Joe Hockey’s budget. Labor is trying to tie Turnbull to the unpopular budget measures as the opposition prepares for the possibility of a Liberal leadership change before the next federal election.
“Of course every single member of the government supported every element in the budget,” Turnbull said on Tuesday.
“Of course, we are a united government and, you know, the Labor party make the great mistake of seeing their opponents through the prism of their own disunity, of imagining that we are as fractured and faction-riddled as them, imagining that we have dissension in our ranks.”
Turnbull mocked the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, for his role in dumping Kevin Rudd for Julia Gillard in 2010 only to return to Rudd in 2013.
After parliamentary interjections prodding Turnbull about climate change policy, the minister replied that Shorten was “the man that persuaded Kevin Rudd not to go to a double dissolution” election in early 2010 after the Abbott-led Coalition blocked his emissions trading scheme.
“This is the man that led Kevin Rudd over the cliff into an abyss where he then stabbed him in the back,” Turnbull said. “You have no credibility on integrity, leader of the opposition.”
Hockey, whose performance as treasurer has come under internal party criticism, said the government must “live within its means – and we will”. Abbott said he had full confidence in the treasurer and the team.
Shorten targeted Abbott for claiming that “good government starts today”.
The prime minister replied: “Good government in this country stopped at the end of 2007. It started again in September 2013. It might have had a holiday last week and started again yesterday. That’s exactly what happened.”
One day after 39 MPs and senators effectively declared no confidence in the prime minister’s leadership by voting for the unsuccessful spill motion, backbenchers expressed various views about the government’s parlous political position in Tuesday’s regular party room meeting.
Abbott admitted at the meeting that he had been “given a strong message in no uncertain terms”.
Don Randall, the backbencher who seconded Monday’s spill motion, asked the prime minister at the meeting whether he would sack anyone in his office who briefed the media against MPs.
Amid promises of “no retaliation” against dissidents after the spill motion was defeated by 61 votes to 39, Abbott replied that briefing against members of parliament was a “sackable offence”.
But in a leak that has angered some MPs, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that it had been “given the names of at least six ministers who are believed to have broken with duties of loyalty in the secret ballot” for the leadership on Monday.
One of them had been “caught” at the weekend making calls on behalf of Turnbull, the report said.
Credlin has faced calls for her resignation from some commentators and from some within the Liberal party.
Bishop said people had been “very frank and blunt on their assessment of the prime minister’s office” and such issues were a matter for Abbott. “The prime minister must respond to their concerns if they are valid concerns,” she said.
