Australia has its fifth prime minister in eight years after the ruling Liberal Party on Monday, September 14, 2015, voted out Tony Abbott in favour of longtime rival Malcolm Turnbull, 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 a meeting in Canberra.
Australia is set to hold elections before the end of next year, and Turnbull, expected to be sworn in as Prime Minister on Tuesday, told reporters he had no intention of calling an early election to cement his legitimacy.
“I’m very humbled by the great honour and responsibility that has been given to me today,” an ebullient Turnbull told reporters during a late-night press conference.
“This will be a thoroughly liberal government. It will be a thoroughly liberal government committed to freedom, the individual and the market.”
Abbott had earlier pledged to fight the challenge from Turnbull, but was ultimately unsuccessful in overcoming the “destabilisation” that he said had been taking place within the party for months.
He walked stony-faced out of the party room following the vote and did not speak to reporters.
Abbott ousted Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party in 2009, though 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 have made him unpopular with his party’s right wing.
The challenge came as Australia’s $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.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was re-elected deputy leader of the party which, with junior coalition partner the National Party, won a landslide election in 2013.
