Australians lash out over latest leadership change
SYDNEY (AP) — In Australia’s far north, Darwin’s Northern Territory News ran a frontpage message for the nation’s ruling politicians on Friday, as they mobilized in Canberra to give the country its sixth prime minister in just 11 years.
“HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME” it said, describing events in the capital this week — in which the ruling Liberal Party switched its leader and thereby changed prime ministers — as “nothing short of disgraceful.”
Online, an Australian satirical website, The Shovel, summed up the national mood in a more humorous manner in a story headlined “Nation Just So Over This.”
It quoted a so-called spokesperson for the nation as saying to politicians: “We don’t care about your ridiculous little arguments and pathetic personal grudges. Without wanting to sound old fashioned, can you just do your job?” Australia’s latest leadership switch — in which Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison in an internal party coup — has struck a particularly sour note among a populace typically well educated in politics, but increasingly disillusioned with the actions of those it elects.
In the local vernacular, many Australians say they’ve “had a gutful.”
They’re tired of voting in elections only to see their choice of leader overturned within the ruling party, usually for reasons of public popularity and the party’s chances of re-election.
Turnbull is the fourth prime minister — from both the conservative Liberal Party and more leftist Labor Party — to be dumped by his or her own party before serving a full three-year term since this modern trend of leader-swapping began in 2010.
Some Australians used the latest internal party upheaval to poke fun. One set up a tonguein-cheek Twitter account that names Australia’s prime minister, with hourly updates. A popular meme circulated purporting to be a public service announcement: “Remember, Australia: Change of prime minister means change your smoke alarm battery.”
Others struck a more serious tone, echoing the sentiments of the major headline from one of the country’s biggest newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald, which said: “Australian democracy is a laughing stock.”
“It’s just ridiculous,” said Justina McAlister, a homemaker and mother from the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. “We all voted and had our say, but it just seems irrelevant.