Australia PM rewards allies, keeps rebels in cabinet as Bishop resigns

SYDNEY — New Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison rewarded supporters and extended an olive branch to rebel right-wingers as he unveiled his “new generation” cabinet on Sunday after taking power in a partyroom coup.

Morrison, the former treasurer (finance minister), was sworn in as prime minister on Friday after winning a Liberal Party leadership challenge against incumbent moderate Malcolm Turnbull.

The challenge had been instigated by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, whom Morrison — also to the right of the party — defeated in a secret ballot. He sought to heal the wounds exposed by the infighting.

“This new Liberal-National team is a next-generation team,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra of the governing coalition between the Liberals and the rural-based Nationals party. “What we have done today in pulling this team together is provide for stability ... it does begin the process of healing.”

Dutton kept Home Affairs but his supersized portfolio was split to separate immigration and national security, with migration issues to be handled by former assistant finance minister David Coleman.

The environment and energy portfolio, which was held by the man who is now Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, was also broken up in an acknowledgment of the tensions the two issues caused within the party.

Environment and energy policies were key bones of contention between Turnbull and the right-wingers, who wanted him to prioritize older electricity generation sources such as coal over renewables and emissions mitigation.

Wind-farm critic and Dutton supporter Angus Taylor was chosen as energy minister, tasked with the job of lowering soaring electricity prices.

MP Melissa Price, who represents major mining and agriculture centers in Western Australia state, picked up the environment ministry.

Marise Payne, the former defense minister, was given the foreign affairs portfolio after incumbent Julie Bishop resigned on Sunday.

Bishop announced she would move to the backbench and had not yet decided whether to contest the next election, which is due by May 2019. That decision could have serious implications for Morrison’s government, which has a parliamentary majority of only one seat.

Bishop, a rare female voice in the Australian government, had put her hand up to be one of three candidates to replace Turnbull. But she received minimal support from colleagues, even as opinion polls pointed to her popularity among voters.

Her departure has raised questions about whether she fell victim to party politics and to a perceived glass ceiling for women in Canberra.

Former deputy PM and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who was forced to quit in February and move to the backbench over his affair with his younger former media adviser, returned in a drought advisory role.

But there was no room for ex-PM Tony Abbott — a vocal critic of Turnbull after Turnbull ousted him as leader in 2015.

Morrison said he was open to Abbott, who had supported Dutton, being involved in government decisions in an advisory capacity.

Julie Bishop