27 Feb 2017

Turnbull, Abbott in war of words

7:08 pm on 27 February 2017

A war of words has broken out between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his predecessor, Tony Abbott.

Tony Abbott listens to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull address party members at the Coalition Campaign Launch in Sydney on 26 June, 2016.

A file photo shows Tony Abbott listening to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at last year's Coalition Campaign Launch in Sydney. Photo: AFP

Mr Turnbull blamed Mr Abbott for his government's poor poll ratings at the weekend.

The Australian's latest Newspoll showed his coalition trailing Labor by 10 percentage points.

Last week, Mr Abbott hit out at the government, warning it was drifting to defeat at the next election.

He said conservatives would desert the Liberal-National Coalition for the One Nation party unless it shunted to the right.

Mr Turnbull said the "sad" comments were designed to hurt the government.

- ABC

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