Liberal turmoil despite ballot backing Turnbull

Greg Ansley. Photo / Supplied

CANBERRA - Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull is facing the difficult task of pulling his party back together and healing its wounds enough to enable it to put up a credible fight at next year's federal elections.

Yesterday Turnbull beat back a bid to open his leadership up to challengers. But despite his victory in yesterday's leadership 'spill' - where a 48-35 majority voted against declaring the leadership open - Turnbull faces fractious and even rebellious critics within the party.

As he was emphasising the need for new unity and a focused attack upon the Government, disaffected Liberals were preparing to cross the floor to join senators of the junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, to vote against the greenhouse emissions trading scheme deal brokered with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The deal has passed the House of Representatives and needs Opposition support to succeed in the Senate, agreed to at Tuesday's joint Coalition party room meeting.

Other MPs remained bitterly critical of both the deal and of Turnbull, who many feel has rammed through a scheme that will damage the national economy for no environmental gain.

"I believe this sends a very clear message to the Liberal Party that there has been deep concern about the way things have occurred over the past few weeks," former minister and ETS opponent Kevin Andrews said of yesterday's vote. "A significant number of people were prepared to say that we would like to have a spill and I think that should be a clear message that things have to be done differently."

Andrews had intended to stand for the leadership had the vote gone against Turnbull.

Immediately after being confirmed as leader, Turnbull tried to shift attention away from the chasm that the ETS opened within the Opposition and on to the Government in areas such as asylum seekers and hospitals.

"We've had a very heated debate over some weeks [and] strong feelings were held, which is fair enough," he told Sky News. "These are big issues. But the debate's been resolved now and what we've got to do is reunite, come together, move forward and hold the Government to account."

Supporters, including shadow Treasurer and potential future leader Joe Hockey, portrayed the result as a decision that reinforced Turnbull's position and restored the party's confidence in the future.

"What today's result shows is that Mr Turnbull has the overwhelming support of the party," Hockey said.

"The Liberal Party is going forward as a party and it's going to be constructive in this Parliament, and it's going to do the right thing for Australian people ... This is about the Liberal Party's future. We have to move forward.

"Clearly this issue has done us incredible damage and I hope the Australian people forgive us for having this very public display."

But a deep divide remains, carved by longstanding Turnbull opponents who have plotted against him since he won the leadership, and reinforced by others who resent a management style epitomised by the ETS debate. Instead of massaging and persuading, Turnbull turned his determination to support Rudd's ETS for reasons of personal commitment and pragmatic politics into a bulldozer that crushed dissent.

As a result, rebels will ignore the party's agreement to support the ETS and vote against it, three shadow parliamentary secretaries have quit their posts, and fury continues to rumble through Liberal corridors.

The chaos Turnbull and the ETS have wrought upon the party were made clear by the decision to hold a secret ballot in contravention of the party convention of a show of hands.

Only two secret ballots have previously been held in the past four decades and Turnbull - who had initially refused a spill - had at first insisted on a traditional show of hands. But with many disputing Turnbull's count when he declared party room support for the ETS on Tuesday night, and with fears a show of hands could deter some MPs from showing their real views, the vote went to a ballot. It was considered that only by winning a secret ballot could Turnbull claim real authority.

Turnbull himself accepted he had to change, telling Sky News: "I'm sure even somebody as quiet and unassuming as myself can improve. We've all got to work on our inter-personal skills."