Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison to become new prime minister

@expat - So the Aussies have voted in a wowser. Can only hope he spends as little time in office as his 4 predecessors.

You shouldn’t comment on something you know nothing about. The federal election only votes in the party. The party leaders are elected by the party. The same as in Japan.

So the Aussies have voted in a wowser. 

you are aware that the people of the country didn't actually vote for anything today - the libs are just infighting amongst themselves. of course, this will almost certainly guarantee that Billy boy wins the next fed

This is how easy it is depose of a head of government in Australia. Three Prime Ministers in five years. The new one, Scot Morrison, more than likely will not last beyond the next election in May 2019, at the latest.  

Australia's very own wannabe trump - Tony Abbott - failed again in an internal party coup attempt.

If only America could be rid of trump as easily as Australia disposes of its Prime Ministers the moment they sneeze.

@inkochi, that's a good, albeit perhaps overly detailed explanation. In oz (and other countries like france for example), Liberals/Liberalism is best understood as "economic liberalism", i.e free/liberal entreprise, less/little state interventionism in the economy etc. In those countries, 'liberals' are historically centre-right (guys like macron or peter costello in oz are imo typical 'liberals').

Imo blokes like Dutton, Morrison or Abbott are not Liberals i.e. economic liberalism isn't what defines them. They're conservative Christians/ far right.

Unfortunately, with what has gone on and how things developed this week, Bill Shorten’s odds on the next election may be dramatically up.

Looking forward to some resident posters' heads exploding when they find out that in Australia the conservative party is called the Liberal Party.

lets hope Morrison does better as prime minister than he did as head of Tourism Australia when inbound tourism numbers tanked on his watch

Looking forward to some resident posters' heads exploding when they find out that in Australia the conservative party is called the Liberal Party.

The party was so named in Australia by main founder, Robert Menzies after WWii, who came up with the name to distinguish it from Britain's 'Conservative' Party brand. Ironically, Menzies, a strong conservative had the idea of a grouping allowing free voice of opinion with politically minimal control of direction of things by the state and so on - sort of classic liberalism in a JS Mill sense. This always sounds good and free until things go awry, which is when historically some kind of switch-back occurs (like a counter-revolution, or alternatively hijacking of the freedom pathway by interests like a military industrial complex, any avaricious control-freak sower-of-opinion media interest, or an energy lobby as out of synch with the times as the fossils that produced the fuels they continue to hug).

This may seem 'Republican' in a US tradition (not that all Republican want to let things to go as they will). The idea of '(a) liberal' there seems to be a label imposed by people on those who seek freedom by intervention or change from below or above, but who do not really have any stake in any eventual changes. Eg. affirmative action in the past giving quotas in, say education institutions to minorities, which some people wold call liberating and others would call imposition. The point is more fundamental, that the state or comparative institution would have intervened. This is not a JS MIll or Australian Liberal Party idea of being 'liberal', more like the opposite.

Perhaps a glib way to understand it is one understanding requires letting things run freely; the other, to take away barriers - anyway act - thereby setting people free.

In Australia, Morrison is not a classic liberal, more conservative -

a wowser

which means religious streak with tendency to shade eyes at sight of girls in bikinis let alone boys) but a bit pragmatic. Just as pragmatic as many people in his party who, with the other contender, coal-blockhead, black-shirt Borderforce empire builder and scurrilous terrorist-Islamist-paranoia-whipper-upper Dutton, winning would have seen their entitlements, free flights, staff and post-parliament pensions dissipate as soon as the next election was decided.

How 'liberal' is that?

Fxgai, you need to check the US budget today. It is exploding. Simple question for you, who is in power

in the USA? It is not the liberals. Only time the US budget was balances in recent decades was under

a liberal President. Check your facts. Reality, as is well known, has a liberal bias.

If anyone doubts the very deep pockets and influence the fossil energy lobby has over government, this move should lay all your hesitancy to rest.

I fear our planet is screwed.

Most of the conservatives who took Turnbull down are paid off by the coal lobby.

Better than Dutton. I preferred Bishop but reality is she probably would have failed to unite the party. Morrison has a chance to do that. Possibly the best choice ultimately. If they can't get energy policy sorted though, they are done. If they can make solid progress on two or three areas, they might stand a chance.

Election May next year now I think.

The funny thing is that the spill motion was carried by 45 votes to 40 meaning Turnbull needed only 3 votes to stay in power!

Dutton's even dumber than i thought, political suicide. As for Cormann, he showed his true colors. Backstabber.

congrats to shorten for winning the next election!

Bill Shorten would desperately want Dutton to win the contest. Anyway, Scott Morrison was a far better choice Dutton. I believe that Julia Bishop is more than qualified to be an excellent Prime Minister. Without Bishop as a leader, the Liberal would face an uphill battle in the next election.

BigYenToday  04:41 pm JST

I never thought I'd welcome a Scott Morrison prime ministership, but compared to the nightmare possibility of the hard-right Peter Dutton getting the top job I feel quite relieved at the the results of the vote today. One common factor in much of the commentary over the past few days is how much harm has been done to Australia's body politic by the constant change in Prime Ministers, coups which are frequently driven by knee-jerk responses to opinion polls and/or, in the case of Turnbull, personal vendettas against him based on vengeance, spite and a feeling in the party generally that he was never quite 'one of us' .

I think some other posters may have the timelines for the next elections incorrect - I think the latest for the half senate election will be in May 2019, but the House of Reps not until November 2019.

That's plenty of time for Morrison to make a case for himself.

I've never seen a separate ballot day for each house it's to memory always been a single day to get both elections done in the one sitting, apart from by-elections, that is.

I personally think that bringing any form of "tough guy" image person as a prospective leader at this time especially after such a publicly messy and vicious in-party affair is asking for complete and utter suicide and Dutton would have been easy pickings for a Labor scare campaign due to how many enemies he's made (a lot and they're pretty diverse, even if you discount the more ideological-heavy pro-refugee lobby types.... remember his attempted $7 GP copayment fee?)

Irrespective of that, especially after such a messy public showing, to say the Libs have an uphill battle may be a severe understatement. As Matt said, I'm also of the belief if there's even one policy that they fail to implement, it won't be a question of them just "being done", I would think the question would also move to "how long they'll be ... 'done' ... for. One term? Two?"

Looking forward to some resident posters' heads exploding when they find out that in Australia the conservative party is called the Liberal Party.

Yes, liberal from liberty, meaning individual freedom. I guess in the US context liberal means "the freedom to spend other people's money" or something like that!

Just as pragmatic as many people in his party who, with the other contender, coal-blockhead, black-shirt Borderforce empire builder and scurrilous terrorist-Islamist-paranoia-whipper-upper Dutton, winning would have seen their entitlements, free flights, staff and post-parliament pensions dissipate as soon as the next election was decided.

Just for the record it was Scott Morrison who was the original Minister in Charge of border control who introduced the policy of towing back the boats full of economic immigrants back to Indonesia which has stopped the flow of people smuggling if the Europeans had any commonsense they would have used their Navies to exactly the same.

Scott Morrison has a big job ahead of him, not only does he have the job of keeping the people smuggling at bay, he has to a good bunch of Ministers to not only get some legislation passed but winning over the Australian Voters before the middle of next year.