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"There are other forces at work here." Malcolm Turnbull's son slams the Liberal party.

 

With AAP. 

Malcolm Turnbull’s son has blasted the Liberal Party for giving into the interests of the coal industry.

Alex Turnbull has spoken out in an interview with ABC radio just days after his father was ousted as prime minister.

Turnbull, a Singapore-based fund manager, says any push towards renewable energy is being hijacked by the coal industry’s stranglehold over the Liberals.

He believes it makes no sense, economically or environmentally, to build a new coal-fired power station in Australia.

“You cannot buy a tonne of coal for the 2002 price anymore easily than you can send your kids to a private school for 2002 school fees,” Turnbull told ABC’s PM program.

“There are plenty of large government projects that you could do to create a tonne of jobs but the singular fixation upon those particular assets in the Galilee Basin leads me to believe there are other forces at work here.

“There is an undue level of influence on Liberal Party policy by a very small group of miners who have some assets that they probably regret purchasing, which don’t make a lot of sense anymore and are trying to engineer an outcome which makes those projects economic.”

Turnbull went on to say he was proud of his father’s political career but doesn’t believe he would’ve been better suited to another party despite the recent turmoil.

“I don’t think you can easily imagine my dad working with CFMEU or similar,” he said.

“It’s just there is a lack of a sensible centre in Australia right now and it’s very sad.”

Speaking to Fairfax, Turnbull said he was “massively in favour of a federal ICAC”, referring to a Commonwealth equivalent of NSW’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.

“I hope they find corruption then I don’t have to believe it’s all stupidity,” he said.

“It’s impossible to vote for the LNP in good conscience,” he added.

Turnbull said he had no intention of following his father’s footsteps and entering politics.

“My father fought the stupid and the stupid won.”