THE Liberal leadership was in damage control last night as supporters of Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull argued over who leaked an embarrassing email that undermined the Coalition's Budget response.
The leaked email, from Treasury spokesman Mr Turnbull to Dr Nelson, cautioned strongly against Dr Nelson's plan to cut fuel excise by 5 cents a litre.
ip desperately tried to paper over the rift between Dr Nelson and Mr Turnbull, both sides strenuously denied leaking the email.

By staff writers MALCOLM Turnbull is encouraging rivals for the Liberal leadership to leave federal politics to join state oppositions as the fallout from

By Kathy Marks The iconic Sydney neighbourhood of Bondi prospered when its MP, Malcolm Turnbull, was a member of the federal Government.

THE latest Liberal disarray began at about 9am last Thursday with a sharp exchange between Malcolm Turnbull and Brendan Nelson's chief-of-staff, Peter Hendy.
Terms such as "forceful" and "direct" have been used by various people to describe the intense differences between the Opposition Treasury spokesman and Nelson's right-hand man, the no-nonsense former head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
on policy purity and stopped petrol excise indexation.

BRENDAN Nelson has confronted Malcolm Turnbull and accused him of leaking a damaging email that undermined the Coalition's budget attack and his leadership, as it emerged yesterday the Opposition Treasury spokesman had been trying to persuade frontbench rivals to leave federal parliament.
The Opposition Leader has not yet moved to sack Mr Turnbull, but the Liberal Party was in turmoil yesterday, unable to mount any criticism of Wayne Swan's first budget despite rising anger from pensioners.
endorsed by the Coalition front bench was a huge political mistake and had blocked the Opposition's budget attack. Mr Turnbull's email, sent to Dr Nelson's office only hours before last week's budget-in-reply speech, said: "Of course, this will inevitably find its way into the media."

KEVIN RUDD has established the strongest lead over an Opposition leader in three decades, just as Brendan Nelson's feud with his Liberal rival, Malcolm Turnbull, makes their relationship almost unworkable.
A Herald/Nielsen poll taken after last week's budget shows Mr Rudd leading Dr Nelson as preferred prime minister by 70 per cent to 17 per cent. It is the biggest lead since the poll began in 1972, and higher than the 42-point lead John Howard held over Simon Crean in May 2003.
er treasurer Peter Costello and former foreign minister Alexander Downer.

IF BRENDAN Nelson is searching for a figure in today's Age/Nielsen poll that might give him some heart, he could perhaps note that his approval rating is identical to that of a former Liberal prime minister.
The problem is that the figure, 34%, refers to Australia's silliest and least publicly approved prime minister, the Liberals' Billy McMahon, just days before he was tossed from power by Labor's Gough Whitlam in late 1972.
leaders as Alexander Downer (it still seems astonishing to recall that he was leader for a peculiar period during the early 1990s), and by Simon Crean and Kim Beazley before being put out of their misery.

The Opposition's Treasury spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, has been forced to publicly declare his support for the Coalition's policy to cut petrol tax, after a damaging email leak.
It has been revealed Mr Turnbull argued against the 5 cent excise cut before it was announced in Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's Budget reply speech.
t for it within the party.