Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made an even clearer demarcation between his policies and those of Tony Abbot’s by the creation of a new $1 billion clean energy innovation fund.
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Shortly after, Mr Abbott himself appeared on Sky News to say he was “very enthusiastic” about supporting the Prime Minister’s campaign for re-election because Mr Turnbull’s success was a continuation of his own work as PM.
It looked like Mr Turnbull was upping the ante after Mr Abbott declared on Tuesday his successor was running on the Abbott government’s record.
Asked on Macquarie Radio if Mr Abbott had the potential to disrupt the Coalition’s campaign, Mr Turnbull said: “It depends what he says, frankly, whether it’s a plus or a minus depends entirely on the nature of his contribution”.
The latest Newspoll published on Monday in The Australian still had Mr Turnbull garnering 39 per cent satisfaction as leader, 11 percentage points ahead of Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten. “We are not limiting our support in cities and generally to roads, we are supporting mass transit and public transport”, Mr Turnbull said.
“Of course, I was part of his government, part of his Cabinet but there is also a great deal of change”.
But Mr Turnbull said there had been both “continuity and change”.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham recently announced changes to the scheme, but is keeping it.
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen encouraged Mr Abbott to contribute to the election campaign during the coming weeks.
“It is not about anti-bullying, it is about social engineering, now that we know exactly what this program is all about I think we should save ourselves the money and scrap the program”, he said.
And he argued calling back the Senate to debate the building and construction commission bill could be problematic.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) national secretary Nadine Flood told reporters on Wednesday the union has agreed to Turnbull’s request to postpone the strikes in good faith and conscious of the understandable concerns of travellers in the wake of the Brussels attacks.
Attorney General George Brandis said the terror alert would stay at “probable” for now, but was under review.
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“We’re feeling a bit shocked, confused and wary of possible further attacks”, the 20-year-old told AAP.
