At 9.30 PM last night, the Liberal Party voted to replace Tony Abbott as their leader. The leadership spill came after months of speculation involving internal disagreements within the party, and the reality they were haemorrhaging public support.
Former communications minister, and longtime rival, Malcolm Turnbull called for the spill and was elected over Abbott with a vote of 54 votes to 44. He had recently stepped down from his cabinet position. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was elected as his deputy, with an astounding win of 70 votes to 30.
Mr Turnbull will now become the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, and initially, he couldn’t seem more removed from his predecessor. An outspoken republican (Abbott made little secret of his royalist ties) he’s proved progressive in his stance on same-sex marriage and climate change.
Although Mr. Turnbull had repeatedly commented that Abbott’s downfall was largely due to “captains calls” and a lack of consideration for his own party, it’s unlikely that our new Prime Minister will start his term with any big stances on social and environmental change.
One piece of good news that doesn’t carry any sense of foreboding is Turnbull’s track record on women’s issues. Tony Abbott’s history of offending and alienating female voters would be laughable if it wasn’t so chilling. Some highlights included appointing one woman (aside from Julie Bishop) to his 19-member cabinet, describing abortion as “the easy way out,” and suggesting men might be, “by physiology or temperament, more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command.” His attempt to put a bandaid on this part of his reputation by making himself the Minister for Women only heightened the sense that he didn’t realise how his actions were perceived.
In comparison, Turnbull recently published a blog post titled “Let’s get more women into politics.” In it he comments, “I have put my hand up to be a Male Champion for Change to encourage more women into politics,” and “Increasing the number of women in politics is not solely a ‘women’s issue’ – it is in the national interest for Australia to have access to 100 per cent of the nation’s talent pool, regardless of gender.” Although time will tell if his intentions are genuine, or if the women’s vote is currently very low-hanging fruit after two years of a man who did this.
While social reform isn’t in the near future, the new Prime Minister has stated: “We need a style of leadership that explains those challenges and opportunities, explains the challenges and how to seize the opportunities. A style of leadership that respects the people’s intelligence, that explains these complex issues and then sets out the course of action we believe we should take and makes a case for it.”
As for Abbott, the sting of being ousted was worsened by the revelation that he has left office four days short of securing the Prime Ministerial pension. Although he’ll hardly starve, his outgoing pension is reported to be $307,542. He is also entitled to addition expenses to maintain a staffed office and travel costs. Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, and John Howard each received an extra $300,000 a year. Interestingly, settling on that number will be one of Malcolm Turnbull’s first decisions as Prime Minister. So lets hope Tony sent him a congratulatory text.
For now, the country waits to see how Turnbull will manage this somewhat clumsy shift into power. Although he’s always been popular with the public, he is infamously disliked within his own party, who have claimed his focus has traditionally been on his own goals and reputation. But we do know one thing for sure, if he manages to make it through a full first term, he’ll be the first Australian Prime Minister to do so in the 20th century. No pressure or anything.
Credits
Text Wendy Syfret
Image via WikiCommons