Australia’s new leader promises party unity
Morrison wins dogfight to oust Turnbull, and become the country’s sixth prime minister in eight years
THE new prime minister of Australia yesterday promised to heal the ruling Liberal party after a week of infighting that outgoing leader Malcolm Turnbull said had left the country appalled.
Scott Morrison, a conservative and evangelical Christian, won the leadership after a brutal party brawl. He defeated Peter Dutton, a hardliner who led a coup against Mr Turnbull, by 45 votes to 40 in a poll of MPS.
Mr Morrison, formerly the treasurer – equivalent to chancellor – is Australia’s sixth prime minister in eight years.
He said: “There has been a lot of talk this week about whose side people are on in this building.
“As the new generation of Liberal leadership… we are on your side. Our job… is to ensure that we not only bring our party back together, which has been bruised and battered this week, but that... we bring the parliament back together.”
Mr Turnbull, who became leader after toppling Tony Abbott in 2015, was ousted by a group of Right-wing MPS who mistrusted his progressive views, even as he veered to the Right on issues such as climate change, the republic and same-sex marriage.
After resigning, he said: “Australians will be just dumbstruck and so appalled by the conduct of the past week.
“To imagine that a government would be rocked by this sort of disloyalty and deliberate insurgency… that’s why this week has been so dispiriting.
“It’s been vengeance, personal ambition and factional feuding.”
No Australian leader has served a full term since John Howard after the 2004 election. Mr Turnbull joins Labour’s Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and Mr Abbott on the list of ousted prime ministers.
Adding to the turmoil, Mr Turnbull said he planned to leave parliament. That would mean a by-election which could threaten the one-seat majority of the ruling coalition and force an early general election.
Mr Morrison, a father of two, did not support the coup against Mr Turnbull. Known as a shrewd political operator, he developed a reputation as a tough but capable minister after overseeing Australia’s efforts to stem the flow of asylum seekers by boat. This involved detaining refugees on remote islands and towing boats back to Indonesia, measures condemned as unlawful and inhumane by the United Nations.
Mr Morrison opposes same-sex marriage and lists one of his interests as “church”. In his first press conference as leader, he pledged to assist farmers struggling with drought and to lower soaring electricity prices. He said he did not plan to call an early election.
Mr Dutton promised “absolute loyalty” to the man who defeated him.