Treasurer Scott Morrison has suggested Malcolm Turnbull flagged his concerns about Kevin Rudd’s nomination as UN secretary general to the cabinet last week, contradicting accounts on the night that the prime minister did not express a view and emerged with the authority to carry out a “captain’s pick”.
Morrison told 2GB it was clear Turnbull was of the same view last Thursday as he was in May, when the prime minister telegraphed to Rudd privately that his nomination would not be supported by either him or the cabinet.
“What I do know is the prime minister had expressed his reservations and opposition to this in the strongest possible terms in May so I don’t think the outcome should have been a surprise,” Morrison told broadcaster Ray Hadley during their weekly spot.
“The prime minister’s view hadn’t changed. This is important. He’d had reservations. He’d expressed them to Mr Rudd at the time in May and he acted consistent with what he said in May.”
On the night of the cabinet discussion the prime minister’s office confirmed to reporters a decision had been deferred and would be made by the prime minister alone. Government sources told Guardian Australia the prime minister had not expressed his own view during the conversation.
Over the weekend, the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, suggested the Rudd decision had not been a “captain’s pick” but a cabinet decision – a version of events that contradicted the information given to the media on the night.
Morrison appeared to concur with Joyce’s version of events on 2GB on Monday, saying the prime minister’s position was clear last Thursday.
During the course of the interview on Monday morning, Hadley noted Morrison had re-established himself as a “mover and shaker” in the government by choosing to telegraph his opposition to Rudd’s nomination before the cabinet discussion.
Hadley said Morrison and the immigration minister, Peter Dutton – another leading Coalition conservative and 2GB regular – were “very key to the government” and were the “future of the Coalition”, being “younger men”.
Dutton, like Morrison, telegraphed his trenchant opposition to Rudd’s nomination before the decision, suggesting the former Labor prime minister take up a hobby like caravanning rather than make a run for UN secretary general.
Hadley noted Morrison could have remained mum on the issue. “You could have squibbed it.”
Morrison said his tendency was to speak his mind. “You’ve known me Ray ... through these regular chats. I’ll say what I think ... consistent with my views and beliefs. Peter does as well.”
The treasurer took the opportunity of the interview on Monday to praise the performance of the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop. Bishop was a “star”, Morrison noted.
Correspondence released by Kevin Rudd late last week includes meticulous records of supportive undertakings given to him over many meetings with Turnbull and Bishop, the foreign minister, who supported Rudd’s nomination in cabinet.
While arguing that Rudd’s accounts were self-evidently partial, the government has contested only one of Rudd’s records directly: a meeting in December where Rudd says an undertaking of support was given notwithstanding the fact the issue would be put to the full cabinet, and senior government players insist that didn’t happen, and the prime minister attended that meeting with a witness.
Turnbull told Rudd in May he did not support his nomination to the UN and nor would the cabinet, but despite this, Turnbull tasked the foreign minister with working up a cabinet process to consider his nomination after the federal election in July.
Bishop worked up the submission knowing the prime minister had some reservations about Rudd but she proceeded, with consultation, in the expectation that he would follow the bipartisan practice of elevating former prime ministers to international roles.
Post election, there was some speculation that conservatives might make a move against Bishop as deputy leader, but that would be an incendiary undertaking, given she enjoys strong support across the backbench.
Morrison said Bishop was “without a doubt an outstanding foreign minister, a tremendous deputy leader ... she is doing her job.
“She enjoys enthusiastic support from everyone. She’s a star as foreign minister and deputy leader,” he said.
The treasurer added the cabinet, looking forward, was not in the least bit preoccupied with the fate of Rudd but united behind the government’s policy agenda.
