Australia has a new Prime Minister

Warrigal

Warrigal

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Location
Sydney, Australia
I am posting this as a news item, not a political discussion and I would appreciate comments staying within these boundaries.

Australia, as people would be aware, is a constitutional monarchy with similarities to both the Westminster and US systems. It is like the US system in that it is a federation of states with two houses of parliament, similar to the US congress.

In all other ways it is a Westminster system with the executive being nominally the Crown, but the effective executive is the monarch's representative, the appointed Governor General. All power is vested in the parliament.

We don't elect the Governor General or the Prime Minister. We elect our local representatives and the party that has the numbers to govern becomes the government. Members of this party elect their leader, who becomes the Prime Minister. The Governor General then appoints him or her, and the PM chooses the cabinet from his/her parliamentary colleagues. The GG the appoints them to their ministerial posts.

The corollary of this process is that the ruling party is free to dump their leader, and elect a new one. The old leader then hands in his/her resignation to the GG who then appoints the new one.

This is what has just happened this week. The government is in trouble and there must be a general election some time before May next year. There is a cadre of hard line government back benchers who have been making life very difficult for the PM and this week there was a party room challenge that has resulted in a new leadership team. The GG will be very busy next week swearing in a new set of ministers to their portfolios.

Our new Prime Minister is Scott Morrison, a devout pentacostal Christian and his deputy leader, Joshua (Josh) Frydenberg is Jewish. The deposed PM, Malcolm Turnbull, will quit parliament very soon and will be replaced in a byelection.

Happy to answer any questions on process for the curious.
 

How interesting, Warrigal, thanks for posting this! I haven't seen a word about it in our newspapers. I guess what happens "down under" doesn't qualify as news.

What I know about the Australian government amounts to practically nothing. Out of curiosity, I googled "Australia church and state," as I wondered why you mentioned the religions of the new Prime Minister and his deputy. Wikipedia said that Australia has the same clause as we do, about the government not establishing any religion, etc., except that it is interpreted much more narrowly than here. So religion probably gets to play a bigger part in the picture than what is allowed here.

You mentioned the government being "in trouble." How? What kind of trouble?
 
Sunny said:
How interesting, Warrigal, thanks for posting this! I haven't seen a word about it in our newspapers. I guess what happens "down under" doesn't qualify as news.

What I know about the Australian government amounts to practically nothing. Out of curiosity, I googled "Australia church and state," as I wondered why you mentioned the religions of the new Prime Minister and his deputy. Wikipedia said that Australia has the same clause as we do, about the government not establishing any religion, etc., except that it is interpreted much more narrowly than here. So religion probably gets to play a bigger part in the picture than what is allowed here.

You mentioned the government being "in trouble." How? What kind of trouble?
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Hi Sunny, another Aussie here. The trouble that Warrigal refers to is that the poor leadership and internal factional fighting has led to this Liberal Govt (in this case Liberal means conservative) facing a huge defeat at the next election if the polls are to be believed. Australian politics has been quite volatile with seven Prime Ministers in eleven years and only four of them as a result of an election.
 

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The faith of the two leaders is only of interest because it is a combination we haven't seen before. A few members of this parliament have been mouthing off about restricting immigration, even to the extent of going back to the White Australia policy, long abandoned, when people of colour and Jews were kept out. This combination in the leadership sends a message that those days are not coming back.
 
Warrigal said:
The faith of the two leaders is only of interest because it is a combination we haven't seen before. A few members of this parliament have been mouthing off about restricting immigration, even to the extent of going back to the White Australia policy, long abandoned, when people of colour and Jews were kept out. This combination in the leadership sends a message that those days are not coming back.
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That is very interesting way of govt making a point.
 
Shalimar, IMO making a point was the last thing on their minds. It was a case of every member wanting to save their own seat at the next election. Still, I like this aspect of the outcome, even if it only lasts until mid 2019, which seems very likely if the polls don't pick up for the government.
 
Warrigal said:
Shalimar, IMO making a point was the last thing on their minds. It was a case of every member wanting to save their own seat at the next election. Still, I like this aspect of the outcome, even if it only lasts until mid 2019, which seems very likely if the polls don't pick up for the government.
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Ok, thanks for clarifying things, Warri.
 
I saw the story and didn't know what to make of it but this clarifies it a lot. If nothing else it was a legal transition of power and leadership. In the end governments should be about the system,laws etc not individual/government officials.
 
WhatInThe said:
I saw the story and didn't know what to make of it but this clarifies it a lot. If nothing else it was a legal transition of power and leadership. In the end governments should be about the system,laws etc not individual/government officials.
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Yes, the government has not fallen. The ministerial team has been reshuffled with reallocation of portfolios. The main challenger for the leadership is still Minister for Homeland Affairs as before but Immigration has been split off and handed to a newcomer. Our long serving Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has elected to leave the ministerial team and has no plans to stand for election again. She will be replaced by the former Minister for Defence, Marise Payne who will do a good job.

All of the ministers will inherit a fully functioning public service staffed by professionals so the ship of state will sail steadily on, albeit with a new captain at the helm.
 
The government, such as it exists, will ALWAYS be in trouble until the current system is quietly dismantled, and buried deep within the quagmire of history, and replaced with a much more visionary and progressive style of leadership. UNTIL that happens, Australia will continue to quibble, and flounder, and rely solely on the practices of other nations for guidance.
It may already be too late, as foreign interests buy up Australian businesses and land...which prompts the question...who does Australia REALLY belong to...? This country should have opted for a democratic republican style of government long ago, but nobody had the cojones to do some serious work on it. Probably didn`t know how to go about it, either.
 
beneDictus said:
The government, such as it exists, will ALWAYS be in trouble until the current system is quietly dismantled, and buried deep within the quagmire of history, and replaced with a much more visionary and progressive style of leadership. UNTIL that happens, Australia will continue to quibble, and flounder, and rely solely on the practices of other nations for guidance.
It may already be too late, as foreign interests buy up Australian businesses and land...which prompts the question...who does Australia REALLY belong to...? This country should have opted for a democratic republican style of government long ago, but nobody had the cojones to do some serious work on it. Probably didn`t know how to go about it, either.
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Look at it as part of the evolutionary process. It's too easy to apply today's knowledge & standards on history with could've should'ves. I would be worried about the system because people come and go. Too much focus on one person/the person can lead to dictatorships.

I didn't realize Australia was in the middle of an real estate boom with foreigners playing a big part.
 
....Not so ''boomy'' at the moment, of course. But, it fluctuates. And, oh, yes....overseas buyers of real estate here have been snapping up bargains for years.
 

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