Malcolm Turnbull says Tony Abbott's call to sack Philip Ruddock was 'sad day', urges politicians to respect electorate not 'slogan at them'

Updated

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has described the Prime Minister's decision to sack veteran Liberal MP Philip Ruddock as chief government whip as "very sad" and a "captain's call".

Mr Abbott has indicated he sacked Mr Ruddock because he "wasn't as aware as he should have been" of backbench unrest over his leadership.

The decision to replace Mr Ruddock has angered backbench critics who argue its timing makes it look like recrimination for last week's failed attempt to spill the Liberal leadership.

Mr Turnbull was widely viewed as the frontbencher most likely to replace Mr Abbott as leader if the spill motion had succeeded.

On the ABC's Q&A program Mr Turnbull praised Mr Ruddock as "the Father of the House".

"He is one of the absolute icons of the Liberal Party, he is well loved, he is well respected, he is esteemed by all of the Liberal Party right across the country," he said.

"Look, Tony Abbott, as Philip said, is entitled to appoint and replace the chief whip as and when he wishes, that's his call. But I have to say, I was very sad to see the announcement."

Mr Turnbull refused to say whether it was a mistake to sack Mr Ruddock but pointed out the Prime Minister had not consulted him about it.

"I'm not going to run a commentary on the Prime Minister's decisions," Mr Turnbull said.

"He didn't consult me; I don't know who he consulted. He is the boss, he is the captain, he can make a captain's call."

Mr Turnbull also recently described Mr Abbott's decision to bring forward the vote on the spill motion by a day as a "captain's call".

The Communications Minister answered a wide range of questions on Q&A, including about the budget and the recently released Human Rights Commission report on Children in Detention.

Asked whether, like the Prime Minister, he believed the Commission had politicised the report, Mr Turnbull said: "I'm not going to buy into that."

Fellow panellist and Labor frontbencher Catherine King described the report as an indictment on both sides of politics, saying her party's policies saw more asylum seekers get on boats.

"This is not who we are as Australians and I know that the Labor Party in government, we did try to have a more compassionate policy and yes we did see a large number of boats and that did mean there were a lot of people in detention," she said.

"But now we have a Human Rights Commission report before us that says there are children suffering today because they are in detention."

'Don't slogan at them', Turnbull says

The Communications Minister chose his words carefully about the budget debate, particularly Labor's criticisms that last year's measures were unfair.

When asked whether he agreed, Mr Turnbull said: "I think the fact that we haven't been able to get a lot of this through means that mistakes have been made."

We recognise there are strong arguments on either side but what we as politicians have to do is treat the people with respect. Don't slogan at them, don't pretend problems don't exist. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull

"You have to get your laws through, you have to get the public to accept them, you've got to get the Parliament to accept them. We just have to do a better job of advocacy," Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull is a moderate member of the Liberal Party, and told the audience good policies can be developed through debate and compromise.

"Australian political contests are won or lost at the sensible centre," he said.

"We recognise there are strong arguments on either side but what we as politicians have to do is treat the people with respect.

"Don't slogan at them, don't pretend problems don't exist.

"Lay out the problems, explain what the problem is as clearly and concisely as you can ... and then have a debate about the options. That would be an intelligent debate which respects the public.

"Sometimes politicians think they're reaching out to the electorate by dumbing everything down; I think that disrespects the electorate."

Mr Turnbull also appealed directly to the Indonesian government to spare the Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from the firing squad.

Indonesia's attorney-general says the Bali Nine members will this week be taken to Nusa Kembangan prison where death row prisoners are executed.

Mr Turnbull said he wanted Indonesia's president Joko Widodo to know that granting clemency can be a sign of strength.

"It is not a sign of weakness to spare the lives of these men," he said.

"Yes, they have committed very terrible crimes, yes, they knew the death penalty was there if they were caught and found guilty. But it is not weak to spare their lives."

Topics: liberals, federal-government, political-parties, turnbull-malcolm, abbott-tony, government-and-politics, australia

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