Malcolm Turnbull says Rudd and Abbott 'like miserable ghosts'

Malcolm Turnbull has described former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd as “miserable ghosts” while delivering a brutal assessment of the federal government.

Speaking to young leaders in New York on Friday, Turnbull slammed the government over the “crazy” Liberal leadership crisis that led to his eviction in August and hit out at his predecessors.

Turnbull said he would not be a “trappist monk” now he was out of parliament, but it was important not to be driven by hate.

“When you stop being prime minister, that’s it,” he said. “There is no way I’d be hanging around like embittered Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott. Seriously, these people are like, sort of miserable, miserable ghosts.”

Turnbull pointed out that although he was behind 51 to 49% in the published polls, he was ahead by four points in internal tracking polls across 40 marginal seats.

“But for reasons that they’ve not been able to explain, you know, there was an element of the party and of the media that wanted to blow the government up, and they did,” he said in a recording of his remarks obtained by Nine News.

“And of course, they didn’t get their guy up, they got ScoMo [Scott Morrison].”

Rudd responded to the comments on Twitter by accusing Turnbull of hypocrisy, before inviting the former prime minister to join him in New York for a cup of tea.

The federal Labor MP Anne Aly said she agreed with Turnbull’s character assessments but said she wouldn’t necessarily adopt his choice of words.

“I do think it’s disappointing to a lot of Australians when you see this kind of white-anting from people within their own parties,” the Western Australia MP told Sky News.

“I kind of agree with Malcolm Turnbull – I think he’s probably got a bit more experience in politics than I have – so I think him pointing it out is correct.

“The fact is Tony Abbott has been fairly disruptive, but it’s not just him, there are deep schisms within the Coalition.”

Speaking before the recording was aired, the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said he sympathised with his former boss.

“It’s a pretty challenging situation to be prime minister one day and not the next,” he told the Nine Network. “But what we have seen, through the strong economic numbers that the government has released, is that he can take a lot of credit for that.”

The treasurer said he stuck by Turnbull right through the Liberal leadership crisis.

“But the party room spoke, we are getting on with it, and Scott Morrison has made a fantastically strong start,” Frydenberg said.

Appearing on the ABC Insiders program on Sunday, Morrison said he was confident the government would have won the next election under Turnbull.

Morrison deflected all blame for the leadership insurrection to Liberal MPs who voted for it.

“As John Howard always said, the leadership of the parliamentary Liberal party is the gift of the parliamentary party and you respect their decisions and you get on with your job,” he said.

• This story was amended on 1 October 2018 to remove the claim that Malcolm Turnbull called Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott “lipid”, as the original transcription from the Nine Network read.