Dutton camp was blindsided in party room meeting
WHEN former home affairs minister Peter Dutton woke up yesterday, he was the frontrunner to become Australia’s next prime minister. But by 1pm, his hopes were dashed when spill rival Scott Morrison was swept to power.
NSW
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WHEN former home affairs minister Peter Dutton woke up yesterday, he was the frontrunner to become Australia’s next prime minister.
But just before 1pm his hopes had been dashed, as Treasurer Scott Morrison defeated him 45 votes to 40 in the Liberal leadership ballot.
Walking into the party room meeting yesterday, the rebel camp was confident it had majority support to thrust Mr Dutton into the leadership in the first round of voting.
But when the result of the three-way contest between Mr Dutton, Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop was revealed, their hearts sank as they realised a handful of supposed supporters had flipped.
On Thursday night the conservatives had secured 40 signatures on the petition Malcolm Turnbull demanded in order to call the party room meeting and they were confident of getting the remaining three needed to force him to act in the morning.
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But the plan hit a snag at 9.30am when Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC provided his advice regarding Mr Dutton’s eligibility for parliament under the infamous section 44 of the Constitution.
The advice was there was a “risk” the High Court would find Mr Dutton ineligible because his family trust owns two childcare centres in Brisbane.
It sparked concern among wavering MPs who couldn’t accept the risk of another High Court crisis. Other MPs were worried Mr Dutton would elevate Tony Abbott into cabinet.
Some conservatives told The Saturday Telegraph Mr Dutton’s choice of Greg Hunt as his running mate was flawed.
They thought the Victorian progressive would bring votes with him but the outcome suggests he didn’t. Reports emerged that Mitch Fifield switched his support and conservatives believe he took three other crucial Victorians with him.
The conservatives didn’t want the spill this week. They needed more time to collect support before calling on the challenge when parliament returned in September.
They were struggling and relied on people who openly supported Mr Morrison to get the petition over the line.
It was Mr Turnbull’s decision to order the legal advice on section 44 which caused doubt, while his insistence on the rebels providing him with at least 43 signatures to call another party room meeting gave Mr Morrison time to gather his numbers.
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Mr Turnbull’s press conference on Thursday where he aired allegations conservatives had been bullying and intimidating colleagues into signing the petition also gave some MPs an excuse to vote for Mr Morrison over Mr Dutton.
Mr Turnbull may have begun with a tactical misstep by vacating the leadership in Tuesday’s party room meeting to take on Mr Dutton, but since then he has been a step ahead.
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AN angry voter backlash across the battleground seats of NSW could hand victory to Labor in the next election.
Australian National University political analyst Dr Norman Abjorensen said the Liberals had been panicked into action by the Longman by-election in Queensland last month, where the party’s candidate Trevor Ruthenberg received less than 30 per cent of the primary vote.
“Pushing Peter Dutton forward may have seemed like a good idea to impress people north of the Tweed River but I don’t think it would have gone well in NSW,” he said.
However the choice of Scott Morrison, with his seat in the Shire, could salvage Liberal votes in NSW.
Dr Abjorensen warned that former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was popular in many Sydney seats.
“I think we will still see a very angry voter backlash against the Liberal Party because of what has happened.”
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And he predicted angry Nationals MPs in country NSW seats would follow the lead of Page MP Kevin Hogan, who vowed to move to the cross-benches over the leadership spill.
Mr Hogan is holding the seat of Page on the NSW north coast by a tiny 2.3 per cent margin. It is one of a string of seats sitting on a knife edge in NSW, where battle lines will be drawn for the next federal election.
For Labor those include Lindsay, Macquarie, Richmond and Dobell, which are held on margins below 5 per cent.
At particular risk for the Liberals are the traditional Labor seats of Banks in Sydney’s west and Reid in Sydney’s inner west.
Banks is held by the Liberals with a margin of 1.4 per cent and Reid 4.7 per cent.