Ben Fordham has savaged Malcolm Turnbull in a blistering rant after the former Prime Minister criticised Scott Morrison’s submarine deal with the US and UK.
The radio broadcaster accused Mr Turnbull, 66, of being ‘bitter’, ‘unhinged’, ‘cuckoo’ and even acting against Australia’s national interest.
In a withering speech on Wednesday, Mr Turnbull slammed Mr Morrison’s decision to tear up a $90billion deal for 12 French diesel submarines in favour of eight nuclear-powered boats built with help from the US and UK.
Mr Turnbull – who has frequently appeared in the media to criticise the Morrison government since he was ousted in 2018 – called the move ‘deceitful’ and revealed he has spoken to Emmanuel Macron even though the French President won’t take Mr Morrison’s call.
Fordham accused him of harbouring a ‘deep, dark hatred’ of Mr Morrison and suggested he go kayaking to relax during Sydney’s lockdown.
Ben Fordham (pictured with wife Jodie) has savaged Malcolm Turnbull in a blistering rant after the former Prime Minster criticised Scott Morrison’s submarine deal with the US and UK
‘We know that he’s always been bitter since he lost the top job but he appears to be going cuckoo,’ Fordham told his 2GB listeners on Thursday morning.
‘His consistent attacks on the man who replaced him are becoming unhinged.’
Fordham accused Mr Turnbull – who signed the original deal with France in 2016 – of ‘deliberately acting against’ Australia’s national interest by phoning President Macron.
‘He was deliberately trying to damage our relationship with the French even further,’ Fordham claimed.
‘And why would anyone want to back France over America? Do we want to get into bed with a country that has never won a war or do we want to strengthen our bond with our closest ally?’
Fordham accused Mr Turnbull (pictured with wife Lucy) of ‘deliberately acting against’ Australia’s national interest by phoning President Macron
Fordham then said Mr Turnbull ‘just can’t get over the fact he was rolled, he misses being Prime Minister.
‘He’s experiencing what young people call FOMO – fear of missing out. Malcolm, we’re all struggling but freedom day is close, hang in there,’ he said in reference to Sydney’s four-month lockdown which ends on October 11.
Fordham pointed out that it was Peter Dutton not Mr Morrison who ousted Mr Turnbull from office.
‘Why the deep and dark hatred of Scott Morrison,’ he asked.
‘We’re now at the point where Mr Turnbull can’t go a day without throwing mud at his old colleagues.
‘He never misses a chance to smear the Liberal Party that made him famous, that made him PM. He’s willing to do anything for revenge.’
Fordham said Mr Turnbull’s speech at the press club was ‘one of the all-time dummy spits.
‘And c’mon Malcolm we know lockdown is tough but there’s 12 days until freedom day.
‘So maybe get out on the kayak go for a walk with Lucy, do something. Get some fresh air. Because this level of hate and frustration and bitterness cannot be good for your health,’ he said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Turnbull’s office for comment.
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Turnbull called the move to scrap the sub deal with France deal ‘deceitful’ and said countries around the world will no longer trust Australia.
Emmanuel Macron (pictured) has refused to speak to Scott Morrison since the Prime Minister tore up Australia’s $90billion submarine deal with France
But the French President has spoken to former leader Malcolm Turnbull (pictured on Wednesday) to express his fury, it was revealed
The French government was blindsided and left furious by the move which was announced by Mr Morrison with Joe Biden and Boris Johnson on September 15.
Mr Macron has since refused to take Mr Morrison’s calls – but he has discussed the situation with his ‘friend’ Mr Turnbull, who signed the original deal with France in 2016.
‘I have spoken to Emmanuel Macron. He is a friend and I have stayed in touch with him since I left office. He is one of the great leaders of our times,’ Mr Turnbull said.
The former Prime Minister who led from 2015 to 2018 admitted that Mr Macron was furious.
‘I am not going to quote him but what you have heard from the French government is held – those are views held right across the board,’ he said.
‘There is nobody in France that I am aware of saying this is just another commercial deal, too bad. Not at all.
‘The foreign minister, when he said it was a stab in the back, was not speaking just for himself, there is outrage. What it tells you is that Australia can’t be trusted.’
Mr Morrison (pictured) scrapped a deal to buy 12 French-made submarines in favour of eight nuclear-powered boats in a new deal with the US and UK
Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris in June
Mr Turnbull said his government had looked into nuclear submarines, but was advised it could not operate such a fleet without a civil nuclear industry.
The Morrison government says a domestic nuclear industry is not needed to support the submarines, as they come with whole-of-life nuclear power plants which do not need further refuelling.
Former prime minister Paul Keating said new pact with the UK and US – dubbed AUKUS – was a sign of the formation of an ‘anachronistic Anglosphere’ in Asia.
But British high commissioner to Australia Victoria Treadell rejected the assertion.
‘This is not an issue of this Anglosphere and I really do think we have to move away from defining countries like Australia, US and the UK as Anglosphere,’ she told ABC radio.
Last week in New York, Mr Morrison admitted he knew the French would be furious after he tore up the submarine deal.
The French – who were only told the night before the announcement- have reacted with fury, claiming Australia’s move was a ‘stab in the back’.
The US and the UK will help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines. Pictured: the UK’s Astute class submarine HMS Ambush
‘It would be naive to think a decision of this nature was not going to cause disappointment, obviously, to the French,’ he said.
‘We understand that. We totally acknowledge that. And we knew that would be the case.’
Mr Morrison said he could not tell French counterparts any sooner because the highly secure information about the deal with the US and UK would have leaked to the media or to other nations.
‘And at the end of the day, you have to do things that are in Australia’s national interest, and our security interests. And that had to be paramount,’ he said.
Asked if he’d had the chance to speak to President Macron since breaking the news, he said: ‘No, there’s not an opportunity for that at this time.
‘I’m sure that opportunity will come in time.
‘Right now I understand the disappointment and they’re working through the consultations with their ambassador’s return to Paris and we’ll be patient with that.’
Mr Morrison said he told the French many months ago that conventional submarines no longer met Australia’s demands – but they were still blindsided.
‘The world is a jungle,’ ex-ambassador to the US Gerard Araud tweeted on Thursday.
‘France has just been reminded this bitter truth by the way the US and the UK have stabbed her in the back in Australia. C’est la vie.’
China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory (picutred in red), to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific
The French government later said Australia’s decision to ditch the agreement was ‘contrary to the spirit of cooperation which prevailed’ between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said the change in plan ‘marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret’.
The Prime Minister was joined for the AUKUS announcement by US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a historic joint video-link press conference.
None of the leaders mentioned China by name but the West is increasingly concerned about Beijing’s growing assertiveness and huge military build-up.
Mr Morrison said Australia needed nuclear submarines because they can travel further and evade enemy detection better than conventional submarines.
China has vastly built up its military in the past few years and now possesses six Shang-class nuclear powered attack submarines, equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles. This graphic shows a comparison of the two militaries