From Domainfax:
“I’m not going to be provoked,” Mr Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
“The fact is my government has a record of achievement. In the last six months or so since the election, we have achieved more with fewer seats in the Senate, in the House, than in the previous three years.”
The Prime Minister contrasted his record with Mr Abbott’s, declaring: “We are acting and we’re getting things done. We’re getting things done that we couldn’t or wouldn’t or didn’t get done in the last Parliament.
…Mr Turnbull dismissed the former prime minister’s calls for a review of the renewable energy target and a cut to immigration, observing that the RET was reviewed and set by the Abbott government.
He defended the immigration program as a “nation-building exercise” and a “question of getting the best and brightest of the world to meet the demands of our economy”.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also attacked Tony Abbott for going rogue, labeling his commentary “destructive”. From The Australian:
Senator Cormann said he was “saddened” by Mr Abbott’s “destructive commentary”…
Senator Cormann added he was “flabbergasted” by Mr Abbott’s “self-indulgent” interview on the Bolt Report last night…
“I was watching it live from my office in Perth and there is nothing good that comes from an interview like that. It was deliberately destructive, it was completely unhelpful, it was not designed to be helpful,” Senator Cormann told Sky News…
“He’s not helping our cause, he’s not helping our country, he’s not helping himself…”
Says the man who, just last week, went rogue and unilaterally killed-off the Coalition’s plans to unwind the capital gains tax (CGT) discount:
Despite work being underway on policy options ahead of the May budget, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann moved to kill off any change…
“The government has absolutely no intention of reducing the capital gains tax discount or making changes to negative gearing”.
“The Liberal-National Party Coalition is the party of lower taxes”.
Of course earlier we had this from Chris Pyne, via The Australian:
“…look, we won’t be going down the track of putting a freeze of immigration, for example, which Tony Abbott wants to do, because it would be catastrophic in places like the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania. Most places outside the capital cities”.
Tony can be very satisfied with his morning’s work. The entire Do-nothing Team has rushed onto the airwaves confirming that the Parallel PM has indeed provoked them very successfully, as well as repudiating every policy position that it could have struck to turn around its polling fortunes. It has now wedged itself from:
- managed immigration;
- housing affordability;
- is now defending the RET when last week that was its most potent political weapon against Labor;
- rapprochement with the Right.
All of which will damage the Do-nothing Team’s attempts to forge an alliance with One Nation.
The Do-nothing Team is seriously outgunned by this bastard.
