A Maori studying in Australia says the confirmation of Malcolm Turnbull as Australia’s prime minister could have some up side for New Zealanders living across the Tasman.
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On Monday, anonymous conservative MPs said Malcolm Turnbull would now have to kneel at their altar, blaming the close result on some of the changes to superannuation concessions which the government announced five days before the election.
Barnaby Joyce (right) has been tight-lipped on the future of Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion (left).
Though the question of who won the July 2 election was answered, the question of exactly how the conservatives will rule the fractured Parliament was not.
THE longest Australian election campaign in half a century finished on Sunday when Opposition Leader Bill Shorten conceded that Labor would not pick up enough of the remaining undecided seats to stop Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition government from retaining power, either with the slimmest majority on its own, or in minority government in conjunction with the cross benches.
With about a quarter of the ballots still left to be counted, the Australian Electoral Commission said the coalition was leading the count in 76 seats, Labor in 69 seats and minor parties and independents in five.
Turnbull spoke after opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten conceded defeat. “We have gone through this election with fiercely fought arguments, issues of policy, issues of principle and we have done so peacefully and it’s something we should celebrate”.
Yet the election was not entirely resolved.
The poll was released on the same day the Coalition celebrated its victory in the seats of Flynn and Capricornia, which gave it 76 seats and the majority in the House of Representatives. In addition to counting the final House of Representatives seats, the Senate count still needs to be finalised and that will probably take a few weeks.
Mr. Turnbull, leader of the Liberal party, had called a rare election of both houses of Parliament because independents and minor parties kept on blocking his legislative programme. As a fall back, Turnbull spent the past week negotiating the support of independent lawmakers.
“We’ve strengthened our position and it’s gone as predicted, ” Mr Georganas said.
Even if Turnbull manages to hang onto his job, he has a slew of problems to contend with.
But Turnbull’s party coup replicated similar putsches inside the Labor Party when it was in office before 2013 and meant that Australia had its fifth prime minister since 2007.
Conflicting agendas and strong personalities could make it hard for Mr Turnbull to pass legislation through the Senate.
“We have won the election”, Turnbull said, noting that the Coalition has received around 800,000 more first preference votes than Labor.
The turbulence has already caused other problems.
On Thursday ratings agency Standard & Poor’s lowered Australia’s credit rating outlook from stable to negative, warning the country could lose its AAA rating unless it undertook budget fix.
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“These challenges are not easy, there’s no simple solution, but that’s why they need our best minds, our best brains, above all our best goodwill in our new parliament to deliver that”, he said.
