Bizarrely enough I just bumped into Malcolm Turnbull. And despite the chaos unfolding around him, he looked relaxed and happy. Asked if it was all over, he said: “No, far from it.”
The Opposition Leader was lunching at Tabou, a terrific French restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney, honouring a long-standing date with a bunch of senior journalists from The Australian. I was grabbing a quick bite with a mate and bumped into the Opposition Leader at the top of the stairs. He was scathing in his assessment of the Right’s tactics over the CPRS.
“What they have done is like political terrorism. They have basically tried to blow up the party,” he said.
“They are not representative of the party and they are out of step with the public. If we do not act on climate change we will be discredited, we will be a laughing stock. We will be unelectable, and incredible, in the classic dictionary definition of the word.”
He seemed a bit non-plussed at the suggestion that, regardless, his job appeared doomed.
“Wait and see,” he said, repeating his declaration from this morning that he is not going to walk away from the leadership and will stand up to any challengers.
Mr Turnbull was taking phone calls while at the lunch table and jotting down notes. I think he had the Sydney rock oysters with sherry vinegar and shallots as an entree but do not know what he had for his main. He looked pretty tired but he didn’t look defeated or broken, just seriously pissed off at the tactics being used to destroy the CPRS and kick him out of his job.
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