ABC Nemesis LIVE: Malcolm Turnbull reveals Tony Abbott’s furious reaction after he rolled him as PM in bitter leadership coup

Turnbull claims he reached out to Abbott after taking his job, conscious that he would have taken the loss hard.

‘He didn’t welcome my inquiries,’ he said.

‘He generally told me to f**k off. He had quite a few variations of that.’

Backbencher Broadbent said he was disappointed in the outcome of the leadership spill when Malcolm Turnbull took over.

‘The Australian people chose Tony Abbott.

‘I believe when our party rolled Tony Abbott, that democracy went out the door that day.’

Another of Broadbent’s cutting one liners rounded out the first episode of the three part, series. He said: ‘If you take by the sword, you die by the sword.’

Craig Laundy has revealed details of the final dinner discussing the takedown of Abbott.

Turnbull felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, knowing this was his ‘final opportunity’ to become Prime Minister.

‘If I didn’t succeed, that would be it. That would be the end of my political career. I felt I had to give it my best show. I just felt I owed it to myself, and I owed it to Australia.’

Mr Laundy said that discussion took place at Peter Hendy’s home on Sunday, September 13.

‘I walk in the door and I look at Pete and he said, “Mate, do you want something to eat?” And I said, “Oh, mate, that’d be fantastic.” And he goes, “There’s some tuna mornay there.” Tuna Mornay. I hate tuna. Tuna Mornay. I hate tuna. So, I said to him, “Mate, you know what? “I might order some pizzas as well. What about that?” Didn’t want to offend him of course but I just can’t do tuna,’ he said.

There was a spreadsheet which identified who was definitely with Turnbull, who was definitely with Abbott, and who could be swayed.

At the time of the spill, backbencher Luke Simpkins told reporters he was responsible for the spill, and that he did so for the good of the Australian public.

He said: ‘This is what the people of my electorate want and what the people of Australia want.’

Mr Simpkins spoke to the ABC for the documentary to elaborate on that decision.

He said: ‘This is not exactly my style, to call a spill motion. But I’d really sort of had enough at that point.’

Mr Simpkins said he ‘spoke to Tony’ and warned him about what he was about to do.

‘He said he wished I wouldn’t do it, he said it would damage the country.

‘At this point I didn’t particularly want Malcolm as leader, first preference is Scott. But I call Scott Morrison, and he told me that he was definitely not going to run.’

Former MP Craig Laundy added: ‘Malcolm was being told by people that he could win. And he rang me and said, “What do you think?” I said, “You don’t have the numbers. You can only stick your hand up when we know.’

Speaking of their initial discussions to roll Abbott when the polls started to go south, Turnbull and Morrison had varied recollections.

Mr Turnbull said: ‘Scott was keen to get moving against Abbott. We had a series of meetings around that period. He was very concerned about Abbott’s prospects.

‘Scott is a very professional political tactician, and he can count.’

But Mr Turnbull said he was wary of Morrison, even then.

‘I know the guy, right? I’ve known him for years. I know how he operates. Scott’s dream sequence was for me to challenge Abbott, to lose, to be discredited as the disruptor, the challenger.

‘And then when Abbott continued to underperform, for Scott to come through the middle as the compromise candidate.’

Whereas, Morrison argued: ‘No, I don’t think I’d agree with the conclusion.

‘You know, people have discussions but can take away different conclusions.

‘We were in a difficult spot at that time, and, you know, there were assessments that things were not travelling well for us.

‘We needed to turn things around. That’s what we needed to do and I was keen to deal with that in the Cabinet.’

Turnbull accused Abbott of ‘amping up the rhetoric’ about terrorism around the world and how it impacts Australia in a calculated attempt ‘to frighten people’.

The ABC included a clip of Abbott talking about ISIS, saying: ‘As far as the Daesh dealth cult is concerned, it’s coming after us.’

Turnbull said: ‘He would do press conferences, not just with generals and admirals. But with more and more flags.

‘I think the highest number we got to was 10, five on each side. It was right over the top.’

Peta Credlin’s influence over Tony Abbott as his chief of staff was raised during the docuseries.

Mr Pyne argued she was ‘demonised’.

‘A powerful woman in Australia is still an unusual thing to a lot of people,’ he said.

But Mr Turnbull had a different assessment of the dynamics between Credlin and Abbott.

He said: ‘I’ve never known a person in a leadership position as dominated by another as Tony Abbott was by Peta Credlin.’

Victorian MP Russell Broadbent, the Federal MP for Monash, was scathing of Scott Morrison’s tenure in the Immigration portfolio.

He described Mr Morrison as: ‘Harsh, calculating and political.

‘There was no compassion in my view or consideration at all for them as human beings. Everything was calculated to becoming prime minister.

Christopher Pyne reveals there was a dinner in Canberra for Abbott’s ‘inner sanctum’ – which included just one woman, Julie Bishop.

‘And, yes, somebody did raise the issue about only one woman, Julie Bishop, being in the Cabinet,’ Mr Pyne said.

‘Look, Tony Abbott as the new Prime Minister, he took very badly to being given that advice.’

The show starts with a bang, with a series of politicians – current and former – sharing the one word that springs to mind when they hear the words ‘Tony Abbott’.

From ‘conservative’ to ‘courageous’, it’s evident there are many different recollections of Australia’s 28th Prime Minister.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce described how the men were polar opposites – long before the political rivalry which called time on Mr Abbott’s prime ministership.

‘One went to Riverview; one went to Grammar,’ he said, referring to the duo’s elite private schools.

‘They’re both Catholics, but one was from the right of the Catholic church, and one was from the left. They disliked each other.’

Their dislike for one another came to a head during the Republican debate. Mr Abbott is a staunch monarchist, while Mr Turnbull has led the charge for Australia to become a republic.

Speaking to journalist Mark Willacy, Mr Turnbull recalled a ‘genuinely crazy idea’ Abbott had to send armed personnel to Ukraine after MH17 was downed.

“To send armed personnel … no-one would’ve welcomed it, and particularly our Western allies would not have welcomed it,’ he said.

“It showed, if you like, the elements of Tony that started to make me feel that we had a very dangerous prime minister.”

The 2014 tragedy cost 38 Australian citizens or residents their lives. In total, 298 people were on board when Russia-backed separatists targeted the flight. There were no survivors.

Then-Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston said Mr Abbott ‘had a great concern for the welfare of the families’ and was determined to recover the remains of Australians and repatriate them.

Though two former Liberal leaders will feature over the three-part series, Mr Abbott and current party Peter Dutton refused to go on camera.

ABC said Mr Abbott ‘politely’ turned them down.

In a preview for the show, former PM Malcolm Turnbull joked that Mr Abbott used the word ‘f***’ so often that he was ‘a skilful orator when it came to (its) use’.

As well as Mr Abbott and Mr Dutton, former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also declined to take part.

Ms Bishop was not alone among Liberal women who were not willing to go on record, possibly in fear of repercussions.

‘I think women are punished differently,’ former cabinet minister Karen Andrews told the show.

‘And maybe we need to get better at really fighting it out, much more than we do.’

Mr Abbott was elected Leader of the Opposition in 2009, besting Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey.

After narrowly losing the 2010 election, he came back to secure the Prime Ministership in 2013 on the back of a ruthless campaign vowing to ‘stop the boats’.

But he faced criticism early on for only appointing one woman – Julie Bishop – to his cabinet – which came on the back of Julia Gillard’s infamous misogyny speech directed at him in Parliament.

In February of 2015, he survived an attempted leadership spill, when the motion was defeated 61 votes to 39. He described it as a ‘near death experience’.

He wouldn’t be so lucky just seven months later, when Malcolm Turnbull challenged for leadership in September.

Mr Abbott was ousted 44 votes to 54, and returned to the backbench, where he remained for four more years.