Drama down under as Aussies appoint new Prime Minister
Australia appointed Scott Morrison as its sixth Prime Minister in less than 10 years in the early hours of this morning after Malcolm Turnbull was ousted from the role last night.
Morrison was previously Australia’s Treasurer, equivalent to the UK’s Chancellor, having been first elected to Australia’s House of Representatives in 2007.
He was elected to lead the ruling Liberal party in the early hours of the morning, following bitter internal wranglings which toppled Turnbull last night.
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Turnbull had called a leadership meeting after losing the support of his party which is currently trailing Labor in opinion polls ahead of an election due to be called before May 2019.
Morrison won the three-way race, beating former home affairs minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
After his appointment Morrison said: "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, which has been bruised and battered this week, but that … we bring the parliament back together."
Turnbull said he will resign from parliament, triggering a by-election which will risk the Liberal-National coalition government’s one-seat majority.
He said his toppling was the result of “vengeance, personal ambition, factional feuding” within the party.
“Australians will be dumbstruck and so appalled at the conduct of the past week,” he said.
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Turnbull came to power himself after a coup against former leader Tony Abbott in 2015.
Liberal party member Warren Entsch said after the leadership vote: “This revolving door of prime ministers has got to stop.”
His victory was welcomed by financial markets, which have been rocked by the political instability. Australian shares edged higher on Friday, rebounding after three days of losses that saw the benchmark fall 1.5 per cent.
“PM Morrison is the most market-friendly option,” said Annette Beacher, chief Asia-Pac macro strategist at TD Securities in Singapore.