after a Liberal Senator broke ranks to criticise the Howard Government's record.

Russell Trood has written a paper for the Lowy Institute in which he criticises the Iraq

war and some other aspects of the former Government's performance.

But before he even launched it last night in Canberra Senator Trood was under fire -

taking an angry phone call from the former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

In response the Senator's supporters have warned former ministers against stifling

debate.

From Canberra, Hayden Cooper reports.

HAYDEN COOPER: Russell Trood confesses his paper on foreign policy is not a page

turner.

But the 200-page book does contain a negative word or two on the record of his

colleagues in the Liberal Party.

RUSSELL TROOD: In response to climate change for example. Our response to this

issue was, to say the least, uneven. The Pacific solution overshadowed the considerable

strengths of a well conceived and responsible immigration policy.

Iraq was an ill-conceived enterprise from the very beginning. We were also unwise not

to the fund the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade adequately.

HAYDEN COOPER: Senator Trood is an academic who has a PhD in international

relations and while he says overall the Howard Government's foreign policy record is

impressive, that's not enough to escape the wrath of Alexander Downer.

AM's been told Mr Downer phoned Senator Trood and berated him prior to the launch

of the paper at Parliament House last night.

RUSSELL TROOD: Well, this is not about any conversations I might have had with

Alexander Downer. The paper is about the future. It is about the challenges of the

international environment that we face in Australia and the purpose of this exercise is to

look at those challenges and decide how Australia can best respond to them.

HAYDEN COOPER: Russell Trood's position on Iraq is well known. His comments

have attracted the ire of his colleagues before.

In launching the paper the Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson acknowledged that he too

doesn't agree with everything Senator Trood says.

BRENDAN NELSON: No, I don't but it's a free country. It's the Liberal Party and

everybody is entitled to a point of view.

HAYDEN COOPER: But behind the scenes Senator Trood's friends and supporters are

furious at Alexander Downer's intervention.

In a pointed response Senator George Brandis says no one is more qualified than Russell

Trood to speak out on foreign policy.

GEORGE BRANDIS: I think it is perfectly proper and indeed healthy for a party that is

recently gone into opposition for us to look. Both to appreciate the legacy, but also to

look critically at our past.

HAYDEN COOPER: Some in the Liberal Party would view it as disloyal. Do you agree

with that?

GEORGE BRANDIS: That's nonsense. Senator Trood knows more about this than any

of his critics would know. He is the pre-eminent foreign policy expert in the Parliament.

HAYDEN COOPER: And he suggests former ministers now on the backbench should

back off.

GEORGE BRANDIS: People who served in the previous government who have

indicated their intention to leave the Parliament, one might think perhaps they've had

their time and its not their role now to try and constrain or stifle new voices who want to

reassess the Liberal party's future.

TONY EASTLEY: Liberal frontbencher George Brandis ending Hayden Cooper's

report. Alexander Downer didn't have any comment to make on the story.

Source: ABC Online