Oz PM ousted in party vote

Monday night’s contest pitted a man who has been described as the most socially conservative Australian prime minister in decades against a challenger some think is not conservative enough.

Tony Abbott has signalled he intends to remain in parliament after his ousting as prime minister, but kept his options open as he came to terms with the “tumultuous” events.

Turnbull took the oath of office, with deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop and his wife among the assembled supporters.

Turnbull – whose electorate of Wentworth has the largest Jewish population of any electorate in NSW – said this has been a “very sobering experience”.

It would also add to the challenges of Australia’s coalition government – likely to face a national election next year.

Malcolm Turnbull has been sworn in as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia after a leadership challenge saw the ouster of Tony Abbott. “This will be a thoroughly liberal government committed to freedom, the individual and the market”.

He has partly blamed internal “white-anting” and “character assassination” in the media for his demise, but promised not to “wreck” his Government in retribution.

Turnbull is the country’s fourth prime minister in just over two years, a recent Australian political tradition the deposed Abbott slammed as a “revolving door” that was not good for the country.

Abbott, a climate-change sceptic, has overseen cuts to the nation’s research funding – and in particular to Australia’s premier science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Abbott pledged to make the leadership transition “as easy as I can” in what could be seen as a dig at the former Labor government, which was riven by in-fighting.

Back then he said Abbott’s climate sceptic driven policy was “a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing”.

The political equilibrium in Australia has shifted a bit toward the center. Turnbull was opposition leader for two years before he lost a party-room ballot by a single vote to Abbott in 2009.

Shortly after this story was published, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull re-affirmed his commitment to the Coalition’s policy on a marriage equality plebiscite during question time in the House of Representatives today.

SPECULATION is rife that Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton has resigned through a text message to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.