Move FM Australian News

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia’s weeklong political chaos, that started as a mutiny against the country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull – ended with his ouster on Thursday.

Last week, Canberra witnessed scenes of chaos after Turnbull unveiled his energy proposal that was meant to reduce electricity prices and address climate change by cutting emissions.

Even though Turnbull’s energy proposal came after months of negotiations, it was met with protests within his Liberal Party led by the former home affairs minister, Peter Dutton. 

Citing opinion polls that showed voters were increasingly dissatisfied with Turnbull’s leadership, 40-year-old Dutton – who is known for his hard-line stance on immigration – further escalated a growing rift within the party.

After vowing to turn the party’s conservative wing against Turnbull, Dutton, along with other lawmakers called on Turnbull to spill the leadership – in a bid to force him to step down.

However, Turnbull delayed calling the meeting until he received a petition showing the names of the 43 people who wanted a spill.

In his push to challenge Turnbull for the top job, the following day, Dutton personally delivered the document with 43 signatures from the majority of the party, after which, Turnbull insisted the whips check all the names on it first.

Eventually, on Tuesday, after being forced to call the meeting, Turnbull lost the spill motion 45-40.

With Turnbull’s defeat and loss of leadership of the Liberal Party, his deputy Julie Bishop was eliminated in the race to replace him as leader.

Turnbull’s loss then paved way for a showdown between his main challenger Peter Dutton and his close ally, Treasurer Scott Morrison – who courted Liberal MPs.

Meanwhile, Turnbull came under sustained pressure to call a second contest with the resignations of several prominent Cabinet figures after narrowly defeating a leadership challenge from Dutton. 

Yet, after Turnbull called the second leadership meeting in a week, he decided not to contest the vote – considering that he had lost the majority support of the part. 

With the ballot on whether or not to spill the leadership being successful, with 45 votes to 40 – the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg was selected as deputy Liberal leader – taking over from Bishop.

Then, in the crucial party-room ballot on Friday, 50-year-old Morrison, a member of the party’s conservative faction and former immigration minister who has been serving as the country’s treasurer, won 45-40.

Morrison delivered a stunning upset to Dutton after winning Australia’s leadership battle.

He is now set to become the sixth Australian prime minister in 11 years and the 30th overall. 

However, his victory in the leadership vote on Friday ended the political conflict that has damaged the conservative government ahead of an election due by May 2019.

Morrison’s victory came after Turnbull announced that he would step down and leave the parliament following the vote.

Holding a farewell press conference, Turnbull said that he was “very optimistic and positive about our nation’s future.”

He said, “I want to thank the Australian people for the support they’ve given me and my government over the last nearly three years. We’ve been able to achieve as a progressive government, as a progressive Liberal coalition government, enormous reforms and very, very substantial achievements.”

Meanwhile, commenting on how Australians would react to the events of the past week, Turnbull said, “Australians will be just be dumbstruck and so appalled by the conduct of the last week. You know, to imagine that a government would be rocked by this sort of disloyalty and deliberate insurgency, is the best way to describe it, deliberate destructive action….”

Turnbull’s resignation from the parliament would leave the new government facing a by-election for his Sydney seat.

The former Australian Prime Minister also confirmed that he would be leaving politics “not before too long.”