Morrison suffers setback
SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday his Government would deliver its Budget early as it prepared for an election due by May, but suffered an immediate setback when one of his MPs said she was quitting the party.
Morrison said his LiberalNational coalition Government would deliver Australia’s first Budget surplus since 200708. The budget, for the financial year beginning July 1, will be delivered on April 2, about a month earlier than usual.
His Government must call an election by May and opinion polls suggest the coalition is on course for a heavy defeat by the Labor opposition.
The promise of a healthy Budget comes as Morrison seeks to repair his Government’s standing with voters, who were angered by a partyroom revolt in August that ousted former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The toppling of Turnbull pushed the Government into minority when it lost the former prime minister’s seat in a by election this month.
That minority status came into effect on Monday, a disadvantage that immediately forced the Government into an embarrassing climbdown when it sided with Labor over setting up an anticorruption body because it did not have the numbers to oppose the move.
Already relying on the support of independent lawmakers, Morrison suffered another major blow yesterday when backbench MP Julia Banks said she was quitting the Liberal party immediately to sit as an independent.
Banks said she was quitting the party over disunity, its treatment of women and its policies on energy and climate change.
However, she said she would support the Government on matters of confidence and supply until the election. — AAP