Scott Morrison’s narrow victory is a win for “compromise” and Malcolm Turnbull’s desperate attempts to block Peter Dutton. But the margin is so close the bitterness will continue.
Without a formal declaration that he would stand Morrison has emerged from the three-way challenge victorious over Dutton and Julie Bishop.
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In other circumstances Morrison could have expected to worked steadily towards the leadership and build wide support.
As it is he is a stop gap leader filling in for a terminal Malcolm Turnbull and a compromise candidate with mixed conservative and moderate credentials with support from both camps.
His immediate challenge is to use that compromise position to heal deep wounds and cobble together some cross-factional co-operation to give the Coalition some chance of survival in coming weeks.
His second task will be to avoid an election for as long as possible, and in that he may be assisted by Turnbull who quit as leader and had threatened to immediately quit Parliament and force a by-election while Dutton was the favourite.
Turnbull could delay a resignation and give Morrison some breathing space.
The problem for Morrison in this is that the bitterness of Turnbull’s departure and time-delay destruction of Dutton’s eligibility.
His personal credentials will be tested sorely as Labor switches its focus from Dutton to Morrison.
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