Scott Morrison works on drought after talking to Donald Trump as MPs want Tony Abbott gone
LIVE UPDATES: Scott Morrison has started work on his first priority as PM after a private call with Donald Trump, as Tony Abbott is being urged to quit politics.
National
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PRIME Minister Scott Morrison will visit drought-stricken Queensland next week in his first official visit as Australian prime minister.
Mr Morrison was in Canberra on Saturday drawing up his new ministry and met with deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and national drought coordinator Major General Stephen Day to highlight his focus on a drought fix.
“I’m not pretending to know one end of a sheep from another,” Mr Morrison said.
“But I do know people are hurting in the country, and they have been hurting terribly.”
Mr Morrison acknowledged the one-week-old appointment of Major General Day by his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull.
But defeating the drought would require bringing together all the resources of government at all levels.
“Another major general once told me don’t rush to failure, and I think it’s important we listen, we plan, we coordinate and we respond,” Mr Morrison said. He said it was Major General Day’s job to do just that.
“I’m up to the challenge,” the major general responded.
“Dealing with the drought is a team sport. I’m glad to be on the team.” Labor welcomed Mr Morrison prioritising drought as “good news,” but said the role of climate change needed to be acknowledged.
Jacketless and with sleeves rolled up, Mr McCormack said he was happy at efforts the government had recently made to help out rural small businesses. “When our regional people are hurting - and they are really hurting in this dire situation - our nation hurts too,” he said.
For that reason, he was glad Mr Morrison’s first port of call was drought- affected Queensland.
“I don’t have an akubra mate,” Mr Morrison quipped.
“So I’ll just have to wear my Sharks hat,” he said, referring to his local league club.
MORRISON HAS DUTTON BACKER BY HIS SIDE
Mr Morrison also tweeted about his drought meeting, and posted a photo of himself talking to Mathias Cormann. Mr Cormann declared himself a supporter of Peter Dutton during the leadership ballot on Friday.
It’s unclear if Mr Cormann will get a role in Cabinet.
First day as Prime Minister and getting on with the job. Meeting with the Deputy PM @M_McCormackMP, my colleague @MathiasCormann, National Drought Coordinator Major General Stephen Day and Chief of the Defence Force General @CDF_Aust. pic.twitter.com/ZeJUxTfx1R
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) August 25, 2018
MPS CALL ON ABBOTT TO LEAVE
Tony Abbott is being urged to quit politics after his role in the Liberal leadership spill, as new Prime Minister Scott Morrison received a phone call from Donald Trump on his first day in the top job.
The calls for former PM Abbott to leave came after he was an increasingly public critic of the now-deposed Malcolm Turnbull, leading the push for Peter Dutton to take over as leader - with Dutton ultimately losing to newly-named Prime Minister Morrison.
“I think he (Abbott) will retire at the next election,” Queensland Liberal MP Andrew Laming told ABC Radio today. “I’d encourage him to.”
It was up to the new, “formidable team” of Prime Minister Morrison and Liberal deputy Josh Frydenberg to pull the party together on policy, he said.
Queensland Liberal member Warren Entsch has also called for Abbott to leave Parliament.
“I think his mission is accomplished, he has got rid of his nemesis,” Entsch said.
“Everything there was purely about revenge. He has been successful in his own way.”
Entsch said party rules should change to prevent the knifing of a sitting prime minister. He said he did not regret signing the petition because the speculation needed to stop.
Entsch voted against the spill, but would not say who he backed in the ballot.
Asked whether he supported Morrison as the new prime minister, Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson said: “Resolutely yes.” “One of the big tasks we’ll all have is to explain to the Australian people why this situation has occurred,” Wilson told the ABC.
“And then how we’re going to unite and focus to go and win the election, which can be won, which should be won, because we have a very strong track record.”
Wilson dismissed as “fanciful” conservative concerns that the Liberals had been moving too far to the left under Turnbull.
“People need to sit down and actually read some philosophy and actually understand what the words ‘conservatism’ and ‘liberalism’ mean,” he said.
“The Turnbull government was actually very consistent with those values.”
The irony was all the greater with the architects of two of the coalition’s most contentious policies — company tax cuts and the NEG — now leading the party.
TRUMP AND SCOMO’S PRIVATE PHONE CALL
US President Donald Trump has congratulated Morrison on his new role as PM.
In a tweet, Trump said there were “no greater friends” than Australia and the United States of America, and Trump also called Morrison today to offer his formal congratulations.
A rep for Morrison’s office said both leaders used today’s call to reaffirm the strong bond between the US and Australia, and Morrison invited the president to visit Down Under.
“Both underlined the strength and depth of our alliance and the unbreakable friendship between Australia and the United States,” the spokesperson for Morrison said.
“Both leaders agreed to stay in contact and to meet at an early opportunity.”
Congratulations to new Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. There are no greater friends than the United States and Australia!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018
There is a chance Trump could visit Australia in November after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea.
‘CHAOS AND DYSFUNCTION’
The ALP has wasted no time in labelling Morrison and his deputy Josh Frydenberg as the “architects” of failed policies.
Amid handshakes and cries of “onya Bill” in Melbourne today, Opposition leader Bill Shorten said changing the leader changed nothing. “They’ve sacked a more popular salesman for a less popular salesman,” Shorten said.
“But the real problem the government has is they’re still selling the same product.” Shorten did spare a few words to single out now-deposed Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to country.
“For all the fierce words of disagreement, I do not doubt for one second that Mr Turnbull was a loyal servant of Australia,” he said.
But that didn’t change the fact that Scott Morrison, and his deputy Josh Frydenberg, had been architects of controversial coalition policies. “We’ve got a situation right now in Australia where everything’s going up except people’s wages and that’s Mr Morrison’s fault,” Shorten added.
Meantime, Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen fronted reporters in Sydney, demanding a policy reset from the government in the form of a federal election.
“This is just shuffling deckchairs after a week of melodrama, chaos and dysfunction,” Bowen said
“The Australian people look at this government and say a mini-budget won’t fix it, an election will.”
TURNBULL’S NEXT MOVE
Tony Abbott may have chosen to remain in parliament after losing the leadership in 2015, but former PM Turnbull made it clear he would not be sticking around.
“Former prime ministers are best out of the parliament,” Turnbull told reporters previously.
“I don’t think there’s much evidence to suggest that that conclusion is not correct.”
Turnbull is expected to resign from parliament, possibly as soon as next week. News Corp Australia understands Turnbull will resign, therefore triggering a by-election in his Sydney seat of Wentworth.
There has been speculation Abbott’s sister Christine Forster may even contest the electorate.
Today Mr Turnbull went for a morining walk with wife Lucy and his daughter Daisy and her husband James Brown.
in an Instagram post he wrote: “Beautiful cool morning for a family walk. Lucy and I thank you for all your good wishes. And best of luck to Scomo & the new team.”
LEADERSHIP RULE CHANGE?
The debacle that beset the Liberal Party this week would be made harder under a proposal by a Senator to change the leadership rules.
Tasmanian Senator Jonathon Duniam, who all week supported the push to replace Turnbull with Dutton, has today floated the idea of stealing Labor’s leadership rules.
“As it stands, the Liberal Party rules states that only two members of the parliamentary party can bring about a leadership spill, and as we’ve seen last week, once the action is put in motion, it can rarely be stopped,” Duniam said in a statement this morning.
“The leadership model implemented by the Labor Party after the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard debacle in 2010, which requires 75 per cent of the vote to change the leader in government and 60 per cent in opposition, has seemingly proven effective in maintaining stable leadership.
“I’m not necessarily advocating for this model to be adopted, but it’s worth considering all alternatives.”
The close confidant of conservative powerbroker Eric Abetz said the Liberal Party leadership rules need to be reconsidered in order to give Australians the stable government they deserve.
“What we have seen play out in Parliament last week has been most unfortunate,” he said.
NEW PM’S OLIVE BRANCH TO DUTTON
Morrison is expected to offer his rival Peter Dutton a frontbench position in his cabinet, after the Liberal leadership shake-up.
Dutton vacated the home affairs portfolio to make his run against now-former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the party’s top job.
Morrison said he would head a “new generation of Liberal leadership”.
DUTTON WOULD’VE ‘HURT’ ONE NATION
An exclusive Newspoll for The Weekend Australian today reports that if Dutton was Prime Minister, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation would have lost votes — leaving him to retain his marginal Queensland seat of Dickson.
More than 1700 voters across the evenings of August 22 and 23 were polled and it showed Dutton would have increased his primary vote by five points.
But the poll also showed that the attacks on his eligibility to sit in Parliament had impact on voter support in Dickson. Dutton’s primary vote peaked at 43 per cent if he was leader, but only 38 per cent with Turnbull as leader.
SCOMO TO SPEND WEEKEND CHOOSING CABINET
Prime Minister Morrison is set to spend the weekend deciding who will be in his new Cabinet. His challenge is creating unity within the Liberal Party and last night was warned by senior Liberal sources that Dutton’s backers will expect more conservative MPs to be included.
Morrison has offered his challengers Bishop and Dutton the option to come back but their roles are not clear.
However, it is understood that former prime minister Tony Abbott will not be given a role in Cabinet.
Julie Bishop’s role is still unclear, after she was the first MP to be eliminated from the leadership ballot yesterday.
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