Another bid to roll Turnbull looks likely
CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull clung to power yesterday as rebel Liberal Party lawmakers pressed for a second leadership contest just a day after he narrowly survived a challenge from former home minister Peter Dutton.
Turnbull, whose Liberal Party is the senior partner in the coalition Government, had won a partyroom vote by 48 to 35 on Tuesday, but the unconvincing win left him vulnerable to another challenge.
Australian media reported party rebels were petitioning for another vote yesterday, and needed just 43 signatories to force a fresh contest. If successful, Turnbull is likely to be ousted without completing three years in power, and Australia would have to pick is seventh leader in a decade.
Dutton said he was canvassing for support to take another tilt at Turnbull, possibly this week.
Amid mounting uncertainty over Turnbull’s premiership, GovernorGeneral Peter Cosgrove cancelled travel plans and will remain in Canberra this week, a source familiar with his schedule said.
Cosgrove is British Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Australia and would need to be on hand to swear in a new prime minister if Turnbull was ousted, or to accept Turnbull’s request to dissolve Parliament if he decides to call an early election.
The next election is due by May.
Labor used Question Time in Parliament on Wednesday to ask seven of the nine Cabinet ministers who voted for Dutton whether they still supported Turnbull.
All seven had tendered their resignations to Turnbull, who refused them in an attempt to show unity and later said he had been given ‘‘unequivocal assurances of continuing loyalty’’. Dutton and one other opponent were allowed to leave the ministry.
Keen to bring rebel politicians back into the fold, Turnbull yesterday dumped his unpopular plan to cut corporate tax rates to 25% from 30%.
Despite Turnbull offering an olive branch to party members, further political instability is all but guaranteed in the final two days Parliament sits before it breaks until September.