Communications MInister Malcolm Turnbull was dressed down this morning by Alan Jones for perceived disloyalty to the his party leader Tony Abbott.

At the start of the interview Jones asked Turnbull to make a statement of loyalty to his leader.

“Alan, I’m not going to take dictation from you,” replied Turnbull.


“You have no hope ever of being the [party] leader,” Jones told Turnbull, accusing him of ‘bomb throwing’ and destabilising the Liberal Party.

Turnbull replied, “That’s what you’re saying and Andrew Bolt is saying… it is doing the Labor party’s work… it’s very sad that you and Bolt are doing the work of the Labor Party in undermining the Abbott Government.”

Jones goaded Turnbull, asking him if he was nervous or angry, in regards to his lunch with Clive Palmer. Later he told Malcolm Turnbull to “get back on the team,” comparing Turnbull to a Wallabies player that he would have “sent home” if he had dined with a member of the All Blacks.

In the same interview on 2GB, Turnbull gave a big plug for the ABC after being challenged on the issue of the national broadcaster by Jones.

“The ABC is a very, very important public institution, it is our national broadcaster… if you live in regional Australia the ABC is the single most important source of news, it covers a range of issues that struggle to get an airing in the commercial broadcast area these days… it has a heavier responsibility to be more balanced and accurate as ever…”

Listen to the whole interview below, or at the 2GB website here.

When contacted by radioinfo, a spokesperson for Malcolm Turnbull said he did not wish to comment further about the interview. A full transcript of the interview is available on his website.