'Failed leader': Stunned Jeff Kennett slams Malcolm Turnbull's 'appalling lack of political judgment'

Mr Kennett said he was so disillusioned about the state of the modern Liberal Party under Mr Turnbull that he wanted to drink whisky before 9am.

In remarks interpreted as a swipe at leading conservatives such as former prime minister Tony Abbott, Mr Turnbull used a speech in London to say the Liberal Party is not a "conservative party" and that it needed to occupy the "sensible centre" of politics.

"This latest point he has made in London seems to me to be an appalling lack of political judgment," Mr Kennett told ABC Radio in Melbourne.

"Why would you do it? Why would you do it from overseas? Why would you throw a can of petrol onto a fire?" 

Mr Kennett said he had written a "laudatory" article praising Mr Turnbull's performance in his European trip but he was now in despair.

"You might remember the days gone by when we used to say as politicians that when we travel overseas we don't talk about domestic politics," he said.

"And yet Malcolm has chosen to have a brawl with his own from overseas.

"It just frustrates me and must frustrate so many of our Liberals.

"We've never had a period of this incessant brawling because unfortunately Malcolm hasn't been able to meld the different views within the party."

Mr Kennett said previous Liberal leaders such as John Howard and Robert Menzies had united the liberal and conservative elements of the party but Mr Turnbull had not. 

"The leader of the party should have the capacity to be able to bring the party together - be it by strength of personality or through policy," he said.

"On both grounds I think to date sadly Malcolm has failed."

He added: "I shouldn't say this on air but I think I'll have another whisky. Something has got to give really. It is so sad."

Mr Kennett said he was "horrified" by some of the government's recent policy decisions, such as applying a new tax on the banks and increasing taxes on superannuation.

"We might find the Prime Minister is saying the middle ground is the way to go but sadly so much of what we have done in recent times is not the middle ground, it's not the middle way. We are confused.

"I so desperately want him to succeed because the alternative to me is not an option. But we are making it an option because of our division and because we are attacking some of the fundamental institutions on which this party was established in 1944."

Mr Kennett said he did not agree with all of Mr Abbott's policy positions but that Mr Turnbull should have appointed the former prime minister to his cabinet. 

Liberal senator Eric Abetz, one of the party's most prominent conservatives, defended Mr Turnbull's speech and said "hysterical media have decided to dishonestly spin the speech in such a way to inflame tensions".

He noted Mr Turnbull had said: "The sensible centre, to use Tony Abbott's phrase, was the place to be and it remains the place to be now."

"I'm not sure how Prime Minister Turnbull quoting prime minister Abbott approvingly could be inflammatory," Senator Abetz said. 

Former NSW premier Nick Greiner, now federal president of the Liberal Party, on Tuesday criticised Mr Abbott's policy vision for the party. 

"I frankly think if you look at Tony's five-point plan, most of that is never going to happen," Mr Greiner told ABC Radio. 

"No one is going to reform the constitution with respect to the Senate whether that is desirable or not. 

"It's politics rather than government."

Mr Greiner said the Turnbull government had been successful at getting its policy agenda through the Senate and this was better than proposing ideas with no hope of success.

"My view is the public expects governments to govern," he said.

"The reality of the May budget - and you can see it in what has happened since - is that the government is actually getting things done."