The NSW Liberal Party Gleefully Heckled The Hell Out Of Malcolm Turnbull At A Conference Today

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not had the best welcome from one of his party’s state branches today. At a NSW Liberal Party conference, Turnbull spoke to the crowd about the whole ousting-Tony-Abbott thing — and after all the usual goodnight, sweet prince rhetoric, the leader then had his audience in stitches. But he was the punchline.

“We’re not run by factions. We’re not run by –,” he said, before being interrupted by an entire room full of people howling with laughter, at a man who had literally only just employed Liberal Party factions to oust a sitting prime minister.

As the group of adult politicians tried and failed to breathe normally again, Turnbull — smiling sheepishly and visibly dying on the inside — kind of addressed the rambunctious behaviour that had just exploded right in front of him: “Well, you may, you may ah, you may, you may ah, dispute that. But I can tell you from experience we are not run by factions.”

Cue laughter.

“Nor are we run by big business or deals in back rooms.”

Cue more laughter.

They eventually settled down as the speech continued, with smatterings of quieter heckles here and there, but the damage to his confidence was obvious: Turnbull was quite literally the laughing stock of the NSW Liberal Party.

Watch the whole terribly awkward thing go down here:

You have to admit though, he walked right into that one.