Australias political challenge

New PM: ‘We are on your side’

CANBERRA: Scott Morrison will have one eye on the drought and the other on repairing a divided Liberal Party in his first weeks as Australian Prime Minister.

Morrison was sworn in as the nation’s 30th prime minister last night after defeating Peter Dutton in a leadership ballot to replace Malcolm Turnbull.

Former energy minister Josh Frydenberg will serve as his treasurer and deputy leader, replacing Julie Bishop.

‘‘There has been a lot of talk this week about whose side people are on in this building,’’ Morrison told reporters at Parliament House.

‘‘What Josh and I are here to tell you, as the new generation of Liberal leadership, is that we are on your side.’’

Morrison said the drought crippling Australia’s eastern states was his highest priority.

His first order of business will be meeting newly appointed national drought coordinator Stephen Day.

‘‘This is our most urgent and pressing need right now.’’ .

He focused heavily on economic management and national security during his first public remarks, emphasising everyone must ‘‘play by the rules’’.

‘‘Whether you are a big business setting electricity prices or loaning money, or you are just someone parking in the street, we’ve all got to live by the rules of this country, the law of our land.’’

Morrison batted away questions about why the Liberal Party tore down a sitting prime minister.

‘‘You are looking at two people who did not do that today and were very loyal and committed to

the Government that we were privileged to form part of.’’

However, Morrison acknowledged he must also work to heal a party left ‘‘battered and bruised’’ after a bitter insurrection.

‘‘Today our team needs to look at the events of this week and how that has impacted on them,’’ he said.

‘‘Where there needs to be changes, they will be made. Where there needs to be continuity, that will be maintained.’’

The incoming prime minister paid tribute to the ‘‘noble, professional’’ way Turnbull served the country.

‘‘He is a great Australian who has contributed a great deal to this country and our party and our nation will be very grateful for his contribution.’’

He also talked up the ‘‘rock star’’ contributions of Bishop in driving foreign policy.

‘‘I will be talking to her, obviously, about what role she would like to play in the Government we will now seek to put together.’’

His leadership rival, Dutton, will also be offered a ministry.

‘‘I look forward, if he so chooses, for him to be playing a role in the Government which I intend to lead,’’ Morrison said.

The incoming prime minister has named power prices, chronic illness, affordable medicines and small business among his key policy concerns.

‘‘The work of government continues,’’ he said.

Morrison must now work out his ministerial lineup and redraft the coalition agreement

with the National Party.

He will soon need to prepare for a byelection in the Sydney seat of Wentworth when Turnbull resigns.

‘‘I look forward to my first electoral test as a government. I

look forward to it, I relish it,’’ Morrison said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern phoned her new Australian counterpart yesterday after his leadership win.

‘‘I look forward to building a

really strong relationship with him,’’ she said in Auckland.— AAP

TURMOIL has once again entered the Australian political arena as the Government yesterday descended into chaos.

Former treasurer Scott Morrison has become the latest Prime Minister of Australia but, with the vote 45 to 40, Mr Morrison faces a split caucus. He is the sixth prime minister in nearly eight years.

This is an extraordinary result, given the events of the last week were brought on by Peter Dutton and the conservative wing of the Liberal Party.

Mr Dutton was the oddson favourite to win the leadership contest when he earlier this week challenged Malcolm Turnbull. Although Mr Turnbull survived the first challenge, Mr Dutton pressed on. Enough MPs signed a notice requiring another meeting of MPs.

Mr Morrison, and Mr Turnbull’s deputy Julie Bishop, put forward their names for the leadership.

Mr Dutton will be disappointed, even vengeful, to have lost. He is sitting on a narrow margin in his own electorate and would have welcomed the higher profile being prime minister would have given him for the next election.

Mr Morrison is not unknown to New Zealanders. His maternal grandfather was a New Zealander and, in 1998, the new Liberal leader moved to this country to become director of the newlycreated Office of Tourism and Sport. He formed a close relationship with then tourism minister Murray McCully and was involved with the creation of the longrunning ‘‘100% Pure New Zealand’’ campaign.

A devout churchgoer, Mr Morrison is no friend of asylum seekers and it is unlikely New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will find any way through Mr Morrison’s defences when she inevitability lobbies him about New Zealand’s offer to take 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.

In 2013, Mr Morrison launched a strategy aimed at stopping unauthorised boats departing for Australia.

Voters in Australia will undoubtedly start feeling neglected as another major party changes its leader. Labor replaced Kevin Rudd with Julia Gillard before Mr Rudd again replaced her. Liberal MP Tony Abbott replaced Mr Turnbull as leader of the Liberals, in Oppo sition, winning the election for his party to become prime minister. He lasted only two years and two days before he was replaced by Mr Turnbull.

Australia had an unprecedented run of economic growth but the times have changed. The mineral boom ended and the economy stagnated. Voters are looking for remedies, not a revolving door of leaders.

Mr Turnbull is going to make it hard for Mr Morrison, despite the new prime minister being his preferred candidate. The former prime minister has indicated he will resign from Parliament, forcing a byelection.

Although his Wentworth electorate is said to be the safest seat for the Liberals, a byelection will mean Labor and Australian trade unions pooling all their resources to either take the seat or substantially reduce the Liberal majority.

Independent MPs, who Mr Turnbull had to rely on to pass legislation, have indicated they will sit on the cross benches. One independent has assured the Liberals of his support, meaning the first motion of no confidence in the Government, expected on the first day back in Parliament in about two weeks, will pass.

However, another MP has indicated her deal was with Mr Turnbull and the new prime min ister will have to renegotiate on her electoral priorities.

The Australian political cycle, like that in New Zealand, has become increasingly poll driven. Getting rid of Mr Turnbull was all about selfpreservation for the Liberal MPs who now may have to face the reality of not only their party losing the next election — whenever that is called — but facing selection challenges in their own electorates.

Mr Morrison will face the same challenges of his predecessors.

The relationship between New Zealand and Australia has been strained in recent years as Australia takes a harder line on sending Kiwis ‘‘home’’, despite many of them not living here since they were young children.

As Mr Morrison fights for political survival, relationships between the transtasman neighbours can only deteriorate further before an improvement becomes apparent.