Naomi Woodley reported this story on Friday, August 5, 2011 08:12:00

TONY EASTLEY: The tensions in the Liberal Party between moderates and conservatives are again on show.



The recently retired South Australian Liberal Senator Nick Minchin has written a letter to the Australian newspaper lashing out at the Opposition's communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull.



In it he says Mr Turnbull seems totally pre-occupied with Liberal Party conservatives.



Mr Minchin says it appears Mr Turnbull can't get over losing the Opposition leadership.



Our reporter Naomi Woodley joins us now from Canberra.



Naomi, good morning. What else has Mr Minchin had to say in this letter?



NAOMI WOODLEY: Well, Tony, this letter is a blatant and personal attack on Malcolm Turnbull. He says he is desperate for someone to blame for taking the leadership away from him in 2009 and of course Nick Minchin was one of the architects of Mr Turnbull's demise.



He says Mr Turnbull has only his own deficiencies to blame for that and he is also urged him to fall in behind Tony Abbott, concentrate on supporting him and being a committed team player.



Now the frustrating thing for Mr Turnbull and his supporters is that they had argued that he is doing that and this is an attack from within their own party which again means he will have to answer questions about it.



TONY EASTLEY: Now we know there is no love lost between these two gentlemen, what's prompted this public criticism at this stage of Mr Turnbull by Mr Minchin?



NAOMI WOODLEY: Well, Nick Minchin is responding to some comments Malcolm Turnbull made at the Press Club earlier this week where he was asked about the pending retirements of two prominent moderates - whether he has concerns that the voice of the moderates is getting softer and why is it important for the Liberal Party to retain a strong, progressive voice.



He noted again that the Liberal Party should be a mix of moderates and conservatives, the broad church argument but he had this observation about winning elections.



MALCOLM TURNBULL: You don't win elections by persuading your most devoted supporters to cast a vote with you for you with even more enthusiasm than they did at the last election particularly in a system with compulsory voting like ours.



You win elections by persuading people who didn't vote for you at the last election to vote for you. So elections are always won at the centre.



TONY EASTLEY: Malcolm Turnbull speaking at the Press Club earlier this week.



Naomi, has Mr Turnbull had anything to say in response?



NAOMI WOODLEY: Look, he hasn't responded to our invitations for an interview but he has used Twitter this morning to respond to another enquiry about it.



I'll quote his response, he says "Yawn, would have thought with financial markets plunging there was more to talk about than the Oz letters page" and now while he might be right, it is another obvious display of the constant tensions in the Liberal Party between moderates and conservatives.



Now there is nothing new there. It has almost always been a feature of the party but there will be some frustration that Nick Minchin who has retired is still so publicly throwing, promoting these tensions, throwing bombs like that and it is something that everyone in the Liberal Party will have to be talking about today.



TONY EASTLEY: Naomi Woodley in Canberra and one suspects this isn't the end of that matter.