Australia’s Prime Minister survive leadership challenge

Australia‘s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survived a leadership challenge Tuesday, defeating a senior minister in an internal government ballot that is unlikely to settle questions of his support. His challenger, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, resigned from Cabinet after the vote but the amount of support he gained a day after downplaying the possibility of a challenge surprised many commentators.

Malcolm Turnbull has called for unity after surviving a leadership challenge from Peter Dutton, who has since resigned from the ministry.

Background:

Less than a week after securing his party’s support for a new energy policy, Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership has been challenged.

His original energy policy, which was trying to deliver cheaper energy, more reliability and lower emissions, enjoyed broad support — even in his party room.

Three quarters of Liberal MPs supported the policy at a meeting last week.

However, those who didn’t support it threatened to “cross the floor” — that is, vote against it in Parliament.

The balance in the House of Representatives is so tight that even if only a couple of rogue MPs crossed the floor, it could lead to the Government failing to control the House of Representatives.

Mr Turnbull wanted to avoid that at all costs, so he announced changes to the policy on Monday.

But it’s not just about that. A number of MPs consider international emissions targets less important than energy prices, so their opposition to the policy makes sense.

But it’s also the case that most of these MPs would be unlikely to support Mr Turnbull in a leadership contest.

Destabilising the prime ministership over this policy could deliver them a leader more closely aligned with their own personal views.

ABC/CNN