Malcolm Turnbull goes on epic Twitter rant about nuclear submarines – after savaging Scott Morrison 

After he being replaced by Scott Morrison as prime minister in 2018, Malcolm Turnbull vowed he wouldn’t be hanging around politics like a ‘miserable ghost’.

But lately the ghost of Christmas past has become the ghost of Christmas ever present, so often has he commented on the politics he said he was leaving behind. 

Last month he said Mr Morrison had ‘a reputation for lying’ and now he has weighed into the nuclear submarine debate, again. 

Mr Turnbull took to Twitter in the early hours of Monday morning to declare that ‘facts matter, or they should’. 

‘It is regularly being stated that on becoming PM I scrapped a deal with Japan to build submarines,’ he wrote.

‘This is being put about by Phil Coorey of the AFR (Australian Financial Review), Alexander Downer and others. It is utterly false, and they should know it.’

The early hours spray is linked with Mr Turnbull’s comment on Mr Morrison as that came after the French President Emmanuel Macron had also called the Prime Minister a liar over the now abandoned $90billion nuclear submarine deal. 

Mr Turnbull called Mr Morrison ‘shameful’ and ‘duplicitous’ over his behaviour towards France when scrapping the deal. 

Mr Turnbull continued: ‘It obviously suits the current Australian Govt to suggest there is a precedent for its shameful behaviour regarding the French submarine contract. 

‘Well there isn’t. Coorey, Downer and other apologists should get their facts straight.’

Scott Morrison (centre right) has an awkward handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron (centre left) in Rome after the submarine fracas

In his speech to a young leaders’ forum in New York in 2018, Mr Turnbull said he was not going to be like an ’embittered Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott’ after leaving politics, likening his two predecessors as prime minister as ‘miserable ghosts’.

At the Glasgow climate conference, Channel 7’s Mark Riley reminded Mr Turnbull of the ‘miserable ghosts’ comment. 

Mr Turnbull defended himself by linking his current commentary to ‘people in the right-wing media that say former prime ministers should be mute’. 

‘What I was asked [at the forum in New York] was why I retired from parliament, and my answer was I didn’t want to hang around parliament as a miserable ghost,’ he said. 

An Australian Collins class submarine (front) and the UK nuclear-powered attack submarine, HMS Astute (rear) are seen at HMAS Stirling Royal Australian Navy base in Perth on October 29, 2021. Australia is committed to getting its first nuclear-powered submarines built and operating as quickly as possible, says Defence Minister Peter Dutton, after pulling out of a $90billion deal to have France make its next generation of submarines

‘That’s why I got out of parliament. But whether as a former prime minister or an Australian citizen, I’m entitled to my point of view and my voice. 

I’m entitled to express my point of view on any matter I choose. It is a free country,’ said Mr Turnbull. 

On Sydney’s 2GB radio station, presenter Ray Hadley called Mr Turnbull a ‘complete and utter nark’ and accused him of ‘siding’ with France and against Australia.

‘[Malcolm Turnbull] doesn’t have a legacy, as far as I’m concerned that’s gone,’ Mr Hadley told his listeners. ‘

An unwanted nuisance, that’s what Malcolm’s been in Glasgow… you’re just a nark, a complete and utter nark.’ 

Then Mr Hadley’s language got cruder: ‘You’re a whinging, complaining nark who needs to shut up… some would say, “shut the f**k up”.’