Shorten says division in Liberal party will continue, adding ‘if I was Mr Turnbull, I’d put out the olive branch to Tony Abbott’ to stop him from ‘agitating’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Bill Shorten says Malcolm Turnbull should bring Tony Abbott back into the cabinet because the Coalition at the present time is acting “like a circular firing squad.”



Shorten used an interview with veteran Sydney broadcaster John Laws to stir the pot about continuing tensions between Turnbull and Abbott.

The Labor leader said he’d seen a similar dynamic in the last Labor government, which was riven by tensions between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

“Well, if it was me, I’d bring him into the tent,” Shorten told Laws on Thursday. “That doesn’t mean they like each other.”

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“I think it was [US president] Lyndon Baines Johnson who said better to have someone in the tent pointing outside, or a verb to that effect, rather than have that person on the outside pointing inside and causing trouble.”

The Labor leader said in politics, people didn’t have to love one another to work together. “You’ve just got to get along, but of course it doesn’t appear that’s what they are going to do.”

“Abbott’s agitating. The reality is the division in the Liberal party will go on as long as this government goes on – they are more consumed with arguing with each other than they are with getting on with the job.

“I’ve seen what that does to a Labor government. If I was Mr Turnbull, I’d put out the olive branch to Tony Abbott, but I’m not sure if he’s capable of it.”

Abbott this week made an overture to return to the cabinet via one of his longtime confidantes, Catherine McGregor, who wrote a column in News Corp papers urging Turnbull to return Abbott to cabinet and give him responsibility for Indigenous affairs as a gesture to heal the bad blood between the pair.

McGregor made it clear in subsequent media interviews that Abbott knew she was writing the column, which follows a number of similar columns written by News Corp confidantes of the former prime minister.

Some Coalition MPs believe Abbott is now attempting to sue for peace after weeks of overt political provocations to Turnbull, which have not gone down well inside the government.

Shorten referenced an extraordinary confrontation between the prime minister and the former prime minister in the last sitting week of parliament.

Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton and Michael Keenan directly contradicted Abbott’s insistence that neither he nor his office authorised a deal with the Liberal Democratic party senator David Leyonhjelm on gun control in 2015.

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Abbott later hit back with a personal explanation.

“We know people don’t get on, but when they are doing that sort of arguing in parliament, what about the rest of Australia?” Shorten said.

Turnbull thus far has shown no interest in returning Abbott to the ministry, citing a desire to promote young talent.

The prime minister used a press conference to hit out at Shorten, declaring he was “a wholly owned subsidiary of militant trade unions”.

He also blasted Labor’s captain’s pick in the Victorian Senate – the selection of Kimberley Kitching, a long time ally, which has caused internal consternation within Labor’s ranks.