How a tense dinner between Luke Howarth and Craig Laundy set the scene for the rolling of a PM
Coalition MPs have dished the dirt on each other in an explosive new documentary about knifing Malcolm Turnbull, exposing details of the “heated” fight which became a tipping point in the leadership spill.
A senior minister who backed Peter Dutton also claims the Home Affairs Minister “drove” the coup against Turnbull and was gathering supporters for “quite some time” in the first episode of Sky News’ Bad Blood/New Blood miniseries.
The documentary, which airs on Tuesday, reopens barely healed wounds in the Coalition just a week before parliament resumes, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison aims to start fresh with his newly formed government.
It reveals details of a “tense” exchange between Craig Laundy and his good friend Queensland MP Luke Howarth at Canberra’s Wild Duck restaurant on the Monday night of “spill week” in August 2018, which became a pivotal moment as Liberal MPs grappled with the decision to dump their leader.
Leadership rumblings had escalated earlier that day when Turnbull caved to conservatives and dropped a key part of his signature National Energy Guarantee.
“When I got there Craig said something like ‘You’re not supporting this madness, are you’ and then we just had a frank discussion,” Howarth tells the documentary’s host David Speers.
“It was pretty straightforward and honest. What I was going to suggest to Malcolm is that actually he resign so we didn’t need a ballot and we didn’t need any division.”
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/how-a-tense-dinner-between-luke-howarth-and-craig-laundy-set-the-scene-for-the-rolling-of-a-pm/news-story/a5f809e35cfafe22bdc1f23f1c9fdf2e