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September 15, 2015

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Turnbull ousts Abbott as Australia’s PM

Source: Agencies | September 15, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

AUSTRALIA is to get its fifth prime minister in eight years after the ruling Liberal Party voted out Tony Abbott in favor of longtime rival Malcolm Turnbull yesterday, following months of infighting and crumbling voter support.

Turnbull, a multi-millionaire former tech entrepreneur, won a secret party vote by 54 to 44, Liberal Party chief whip Scott Buchholz told reporters after the Canberra meeting.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was elected deputy leader of the party which, with junior coalition partner the National Party, won a landslide election in 2013.

“Ultimately, the prime minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs,” Turnbull told reporters at Parliament House ahead of the vote.

“We need a different style of leadership.”

Abbott pledged to fight the challenge but was ultimately unsuccessful in overcoming the “destabilization” that he said had been taking place within the party over months.

Abbott ousted Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party in 2009 although Turnbull has consistently been seen as a preferred prime minister.

However, Turnbull’s support for a carbon trading scheme, gay marriage and an Australian republic has made him unpopular with his party’s right wing.

The challenge came as Australia’s US$1.5 trillion economy struggles to cope with the end of a once-in-a-century mining boom and just days before a by-election in Western Australia state widely seen as a test of Abbott’s leadership.

Abbott emerged badly weakened from a leadership challenge in February, which came about after weeks of infighting, and pledged a new spirit of conciliation.

Popular with the public

He and his government have since consistently lagged the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls, helping to fuel speculation over how long his party would give him to turn things around.

Peter Chen, a political scientist from the University of Sydney, said Turnbull faced the same problem as Kevin Rudd, a former Labor prime minister toppled by his own party.

“He is popular with the public, but not necessarily within his own party,” Chen said.

Abbott continued to defy popular opinion inside and outside his party, despite pledging to be more consultative, blocking his MPs from supporting same-sex marriage and announcing an emissions target criticized as inadequate by environmental groups.

A Fairfax-Ipsos poll showed yesterday that voters in the seat of Canning in Western Australia could deliver a swing of up to 10 percent against the government in Saturday’s by-election.

That would not be enough for Labor to win the seat but it would be seen as a disastrous outcome for Abbott’s leadership just a year out from a scheduled general election.

The change of leaders is the latest sign of political instability in Australia, which has in recent years been convulsed by backroom machinations and party coups that have shaken public and business confidence.

Rudd, elected with a strong mandate in 2007, was deposed by his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010 amid the same sort of poll numbers that Abbott is now facing. Gillard was in turn deposed by Rudd ahead of elections won by Abbott in 2013.

Abbott has now become the shortest reigning first-term prime minister to be overthrown, said Rod Tiffen, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Sydney.

“It’s pretty amazing to think that we will have had two prime ministers overthrown in their first terms, which hasn’t happened since World War II. This shows the degree of instability within parties that we now have,” Tiffen said.

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