Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull blames Tony Abbott for government’s popularity decline

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: AP

Published: 3:47pm, 27 Feb 2017Updated: 11:15pm, 27 Feb 2017

Australia’s prime minister on Monday blamed recent criticism from his predecessor for a dip in the government’s popularity in a closely watched opinion poll.

We saw an outburst on Thursday and it had its desired impact on the Newspoll

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said comments by Tony Abbott’s in a speech last week that the conservative government risked a “drift to defeat” were aimed at damaging the ruling coalition.

He said the comments were the reason why to the centre-left Labor Party opposition had extended its lead over the government in the Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper on Monday.

“We saw an outburst on Thursday and it had its desired impact on the Newspoll,” Turnbull told reporters. “It was exactly as predicted and as calculated.”

Abbott was prime minister before Turnbull replaced him after a bitter internal challenge in the ruling party in September 2015. Turnbull justified his challenge by pointing to the government’s poor results in a series of Newspoll surveys under Abbott’s leadership.

The government’s popularity initially surged with the more centrist Turnbull at its helm, but has fallen behind Labor since scraping back into power at July elections.