New Oz leader drives migrant no
– Evangelical Christian Scott Morrison, who emerged as prime minister yesterday after a ruling party bun fight, is a key architect of Australia’s controversial “stop the boats” policy to halt the arrival of seaborne asylum seekers.
Morrison, an ambitious man who has always dreamed of the top job, snatched the leadership from the hands of hardline conservatives who had engineered the ouster of incumbent moderate Malcolm Turnbull.
Morrison, who was immigration minister before becoming treasurer, was reportedly quietly canvassing support among his colleagues as Turnbull feuded with his rivals during the week.
The 50-year-old’s stealth candi- dacy reflected aspirations he has had since he entered parliament in 2007, representing the Sydney seat of Cook – the site of Australia’s last race riots in 2005.
“I look forward to it. I relish it,” he said after rising to the country’s highest political role.
The son of a police officer, Morrison – known as “ScoMo” – becomes Australia’s seventh prime minister in 11 years, replacing a man who became the latest in a long line of leaders knifed in the back by their allies.
He built his reputation in the party as a tough, but effective, operator when he took on the immigration portfolio from 2013-14, implementing the controversial “Operation Sovereign Borders” to stop asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat.
They were either sent back to where they had come from or transferred to remote Pacific island camps, a policy roundly criticised by the United Nations and rights groups.
A defiant Morrison stared down his critics and enforced a veil of secrecy around the military operations to turn back boats, sometimes to countries with dodgy human rights records.
As doctors and advocates slammed the conditions in the camps on the two islands where some asylum seekers were held for years, Morrison celebrated the fall in the number of arrivals.
He stressed that the policy had stopped the tide of boats and prevented people from drowning.
Even so, critics questioned how the man in charge reconciled his worn-on-the-sleeve Christian faith with his uncompromising immigration stance. –