One, because it was honest – a rarity in this game. And two, because it was mad.

Turnbull gave the interview during a time of upheaval in the Liberal Party. He was being undercut by members of the right faction, such as senator Nick Minchin, Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews, who had used the issue of climate change action as a launchpad for their wrecking.

“There is a recklessness and a wilfulness in these men which is going to destroy the Liberal Party,” 2009 Turnbull said.

He went on to say the Liberals would be destroyed if the issue wasn’t resolved.

”If Nick Minchin wins this battle, he condemns our party to irrelevance because what he is saying on one of the greatest issues and challenges of our time, one that will affect the future of the planet and the future of our children and their children, Nick Minchin is saying ‘Do nothing’,” Turnbull said.

In the same interview, the kicker: “We will end up becoming a fringe party of the far right.”

Turnbull was ousted the next day and the rest is history – Abbott beat him, then Turnbull won the battle against Abbott and that faction who had openly despised him since 2009, but lost the war, leaving The Lodge with a rather thin record as prime minister.

Reading Niki Savva’s most recent (excellent) book Earthquake, you are left with the sense that not only was Turnbull right 16 years ago, but those he was right about, and those who have followed in their footsteps, still haven’t come to turns with their mess. They come across as completely shellshocked that it hasn’t worked, that by embracing their worst political instincts, cheered on by cultist right-wing media, they have lost the nation.

Turnbull was vilified for his 2009 honesty. Later, when as PM he failed to curtail the conservative wreckers in his party room, leading to compromised policy and ultimately failing to match expectations he had laid among voters that the Liberals would be different under his second go, it was used as proof he was bad at the politics.

Turnbull was bad at the politics, but that wasn’t entirely his fault. The Liberal Party was already dead by the time he donned that infamous leather jacket for his Q&A sit-down a few months later to talk about what went wrong and why he was staying. Whether he knew it then or not, the party Turnbull led as prime minister was a walking zombie – dead, but not yet buried, although with each leadership change more and more decay set in.

Sean Kelly, author of the 100th Quarterly Essay, “The Good Fight”, about the Albanese government, said at his Canberra launch that the great tragedy of Turnbull was that he was right.

And he was.

He was right about the Liberal Party and its future. He was right that its refusal to accept climate science would destroy it and make it irrelevant. He was right about Abbott and Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. He was right about AUKUS. He was right about the independents coming for his colleagues’ safe seats.

Speaking after the unveiling of his prime ministerial portrait at Parliament on Thursday, an event attended by more Labor MPs and crossbenchers than from his own party, Turnbull had the sanguine glow of someone who had been vindicated.

“If I had to diagnose the fundamental problem of what’s going on with the Coalition at the moment, and this was always an issue, it was an issue at my time, but it’s just got worse and worse and worse; there is a group of people – they’re in now, I think, essentially, the majority – who think the object of politics is to win the approval of a relatively narrow path of, what you might call, the right-wing media, Sky After Dark, fellow travellers in social media and radio, and so they’re running on culture war issues, on reality denial, it’s really sad,” he said.

“You can see from the electoral results, you can see from the polling, it doesn’t work, right?”

Sussan Ley, who attended but did not take a seat, was flanked by one of her only allies in the party room, Angie Bell, and Tasmanian senator Jono Duniam. She was frosty when made to greet Turnbull.

But if the Liberals want to blame Turnbull for their downfall, they just prove they are incapable of learning any lessons. Turnbull hinted, but didn’t outright say, that he believes the Liberal Party is done.

Ley returned to the chamber, where she gave what will be one of her last addresses as Liberal leader to the House, wishing its members and the public a happy Christmas and safe holidays. Barnaby Joyce’s defection to the crossbench took her party numbers to 42 and Labor continues on its merry way.

Labor was celebrating its end-of-year wins, having laid the trap for Joyce’s defection and set the Coalition on its final path to destruction by putting up Joyce’s private members’ bill to scrap net zero for debate every parliamentary sitting week, ensuring it stoked as many fires of discontent as possible.

Anthony Albanese got his wish – a compliant caucus and a destroyed and knobbled opposition, still intent on pretending the world is as it sees it, and not as it is.

Turnbull was right. But it is the government that matters and for that, we must take these lessons and apply them where they count.

The Liberals destroyed themselves through existing in an echo chamber. The walls of this Labor government’s echo chamber are growing taller. If it doesn’t want to end the same way, it’s got to hear what the disappointed are saying, not just take parliamentary dominance as a sign there are no more battles to win.