Early on the morning of June 12, the Liberal senator Eric Abetz and his chief of staff, Brad Stansfield, boarded a plane from Hobart to Sydney. Of several Abetz meetings in Sydney that day, one would go down in political infamy.

Already it has severely wounded Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, although the extent of the injury is still to unravel.

After lunch that Friday of June 12, Abetz and Stansfield joined Turnbull at the Potts Point office of Turnbull's wife, Lucy. Lucy was not there.

Godwin Grech was. He had flown from Canberra to Sydney of his own accord. As the four sat around a table, Grech began the proceedings. He pulled from his briefcase the copy of an email that Grech said had been sent to him by Kevin Rudd's economic adviser, Andrew Charlton.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/going-down-down-down-20090807-ecyv.html