Morrison to replace Turnbull as Australia PM
Treasurer Scott Morrison will become Australia’s prime minister after Liberal party lawmakers voted to oust Malcolm Turnbull, deepening political instability that has seen six changes of prime minister in little more than a decade.
New Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised generational change in the warring Liberal party on Friday, seeking to end an internecine battle that has scarred the conservative government ahead of an election due by May 2019.
Morrison, who was treasurer under outgoing prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, emerged the surprise winner in a three-way challenge for the leadership of the Liberal party brought on by a right-wing rival this week.
Stepping up to become Australia’s sixth prime minister in less than 10 years, Morrison has inherited leadership of a coalition between the Liberal and National parties whose one-seat majority will have to be defended when a byelection is held for a safe Sydney seat that Turnbull is set to vacate.
“Our job ... as we take forward this mantle of leadership as a new generation, is to ensure that we not only bring our party back together, but that ... we bring the parliament back together,” Morrison said in his first appearance after his party-room victory.
“The new generation of Liberal leadership is on your side”, he told Australian voters, many of whom are angry and frustrated with a decade of political instability.