MALCOLM’S VIEWS ON ...

SCOTT MORRISON unlike many others, his ambition is I didn’t regard Scott as working against matched by an extraordinary me in a rivalrous way and reposed great work ethic. trust in him but he needed to be GREG HUNT managed carefully and always I wasn't aware of it at this point, but counselled intensely about the need Hunt all too often used abusive and for confidentiality. vulgar language towards others. Mathias and I were at our wits’ end as ABC to how to manage Scott. As Mathias Personally I was thoroughly pro-ABC ... said ‘We have a Treasurer problem’ the ABC had a crucial role to play but it and the problem was one of trust. needed to improve its journalism so it BILL SHORTEN was genuinely accurate and impartial. I’d listen to Bill. Many a time I felt his speech was better than mine, but he KEVIN RUDD’S BID TO never did it justice. Occasionally I RUN THE UN Kevin, the consensus view, and it’s my wanted to jump up and say ‘give me view too, is that you aren’t suited to the your speech and let me read it for you’. role because of your interpersonal and DONALD TRUMP management skills. (Rudd replied) ... He was typical of a few billionaires I’ve ‘You little f..king rat, you piece of shit.’ known ... the one thing I’d learned with bullies is that sucking up to them is PETER COSTELLO precisely the wrong way to go. Rather than making a case for himself, he proceeded to argue that nobody else DEPRESSION was qualified to succeed Howard. It was Only my family doctors and a few very very underwhelming and left me less close friends were aware of how sick convinced about Costello’s I’d been. leadership capacity. CHRISTOPHER PYNE Peter had only himself to blame for When it came to gossip, he was the soul not becoming leader while we were in of indiscretion especially if it was government. He hadn’t had the courage amusing or salacious. to stand up to Howard let alone JULIE BISHOP challenge him. Julie was of course my oldest friend in ABBOTT GOVERNMENT the parliament. We had known each This was at the core of the dysfunction other long before we went into of the Abbott cabinet. Abbott’s own parliament. office largely through (Peta) Credlin Julie Bishop was struggling as shadow shared cabinet discussions and cabinet treasurer. I spoke to Peter Costello to papers with the media, principally The seek his view. He told me she was Daily Telegraph and The Australian. ineffectual and should go then KERRY PACKER perversely he told Julie she should Nothing baffled me about Kerry more keep at it. than his gambling. On a rare evening MATHIAS CORMANN when I joined him he lost $3m, it Cormann's treachery was the worst and seemed completely mad. At one point the most hurtful. He'd become a trusted he sent his ... valet to get his shotgun so friend of mine ... he used to send me he could blow his brains out. With the pictures of his children. callowness of youth, I didn’t think he was ever likely to take his own life but JOSH FRYDENBERG now having been through dark periods Wears his ambition and his prime of my own, I can see I should have been ministerial destiny on his sleeve. But more empathetic.