Nowhere for Turnbull as support evaporates
CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s tenure looked doomed yesterday with his Government adjourning Parliament to struggle with an internecine leadership battle which saw ministers desert Turnbull and call for a second leadership vote.
Three senior ministers who supported Turnbull in a leadership ballot for the ruling Liberal party on Tuesday, against former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, said yesterday they now backed Dutton.
Turnbull won the Tuesday contest by only seven votes. Dutton yesterday publicly called for another leadership vote.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Turnbull’s key cabinet supporter who tendered his resignation, said he now believed that Dutton was the best person to lead the conservative government to the next election, due by May 2019.
‘‘I can’t ignore reality,’’ Cormann said as he announced he was withdrawing support for Turnbull, adding five other ministers who voted for Turnbull on Tuesday had told him they were changing sides.
‘‘I can’t ignore the fact that a majority of colleagues in the Liberal Party . . . are of the view that
there should be a change.’’
Turnbull is unlikely to contest a second leadership ballot, Austra lian media reported yesterday, making way for Treasurer Scott Morrison as a surprise challenger for the top job.
Morrison has been a Turnbull supporter, but has reportedly long held ambitions on the prime ministership.
Whoever emerges as Australia’s next prime minister, they will become the country’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
With the Liberal party leadership in disarray, the Government suspended the lower house of Parliament until September 10. Parliament was due to end its current sitting today, before breaking for three weeks.
Australia’s continued political instability has fuelled anger and frustration among voters and hindered investment by the business sector.
‘‘For everybody in the country what is happening in Canberra is disappointing and frustrating. Business likes certainty and confidence in what happens in the future.
‘‘Any time we see uncertainty like is happening in Canberra it is not helpful,’’ Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.
❛ It’s with great sadness and a heavy heart that we went to see the prime
minister yesterday afternoon to advise him that in our judgement he no longer enjoyed the support of the majority of members in the Liberal Party party room.
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Finance Minister Mathias Cormann