Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unleashed on “idiot” Angus Taylor after he was elected the new leader of the Liberal Party.
ICYMI, Taylor assumed the position after defeating Sussan Ley in a leadership contest during a special party room meeting earlier today.
A bunch of Liberal politicians welcomed the move, including the outgoing Ley and the newly-elected deputy leader Jane Hume, but not everyone thought Taylor was the right pick.
“What a lot of people say about Angus Taylor is he is the best qualified idiot they’ve ever met,” Turnbull — who led the Liberal Party from 2008 to 2009, and again from 2015 to 2018 — told the ABC.
Turnbull continued his roast by highlighting Taylor’s status as Rhodes Scholar, having attended Oxford University while studying as part of its international postgraduate program.
While that may sound like a tick in Taylor’s favour, Turnbull reminded folks that plenty of politicians have achieved that feat, including himself.
“They’re saying [Taylor’s] got all these degrees, he’s got all of these qualifications, he is a Rhodes Scholar,” Turnbull said.
“Mind you, they’re a dime a dozen — look at me and Tony Abbott.”
Beyond those jabs, Turnbull also took broader aim at what Taylor’s election means for the Liberals, saying the party will be “condemned to further irrelevance” if it returns to conservative, right-leaning policies instead of chasing the centre.
“They’ve got to stop living in this right wing populist bubble and get back and sound like serious business people wanting to get a better outcome for Australia,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull also warned the Liberal Party that “win[ning] back” votes on the right is a losing game given that they’re up against Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
“If you think you’re going to win back people who have gone to Hanson by showing yourself as even more tough, more anti-immigration than her, that’s a game you can’t win,” he said.
Taylor’s ascension comes during one of the most tumultuous times in the Liberal Party’s history, following their worst election loss in 70 years and a messy on-again, off-again relationship with The Nationals.
Whether Taylor is up for the vast challenge ahead of him remains to be seen… but according to Turnbull, the answer is “definitely not”.
Lead images: Getty Images and ABC
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