Veteran LNP backbencher says the former prime minister risks being seen as a wrecker, ‘hellbent on destroying an individual’

The Veteran Liberal MP Warren Entsch has called on Tony Abbott to shut up or quit after he again offered his views on the performance of the Turnbull government.

“He was going to step down graciously, he was going to serve in the best interests of the country but he was not going to do a running commentary, he was not going to be critical,” Entsch told the ABC.

“Well it has been anything but that.”

Entsch told Fairfax Media Abbott’s actions were “reinforcing all the negative aspects of his time” and seemed aimed at getting back at Malcolm Turnbull who ousted him from the prime ministership.

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“He made it quite clear when he left office that he would not be a Kevin Rudd, that he would not provide a running commentary, he would positively contribute. He was very specific when he said that – and most of us believed him.

“But what he’s doing now is reinforcing all the negative aspects of his time. And if it continues like this, this will be his legacy – and he won’t be remembered fondly. He’ll just be seen as a wrecker, hellbent on destroying an individual.”

Just two months after being attacked by senior Coalition figures for criticising the government’s direction, Abbott re-emerged in the public spotlight on Monday by calling for curbs on immigration to help housing affordability and denouncing “political correctness running riot”.

He warned in an opinion piece for News Corp newspapers and later in a radio interview with Ray Hadley that there was a feeling in the community that Labor’s Bill Shorten would win the next election, and outlined how he believed the Coalition could stop that.

Abbott said he had every right to speak out, and would appear on Hadley’s high-rating show broadcast on 2GB in Sydney and 4BC in Brisbane every fortnight.



“As a former PM people would expect me to have something to say from time to time on important national and international issues. I certainly intend to continue.”



In the past few weeks, Abbott has also criticised the government over ratification of an extradition treaty with China and negotiations with crossbench senators over company tax cuts, defended his deeply unpopular 2014 budget and laid out his own manifesto for the next election, including scrapping the Human Rights Commission, cutting immigration, winding back the renewable energy target and stopping new spending.