SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA-With Australia’s government in chaos amid a dramatic national election that failed to deliver an immediate victor, the country’s opposition leader called on Monday for the prime minister to resign, dubbing him “the David Cameron of the southern hemisphere”.
Advertisement
Bill Shorten has taken yet another swipe at Malcolm Turnbull, claiming the Prime Minister has “Brexited himself” by leading the Australian public into uncertainty as the result of the Federal Election remains unclear.
A supporter of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull watches as Labor Party leader Bill Shorten speaks on a television screen during an official function for the Liberal Party during the Australian general election in Sydney, Australia, July 2, 2016.
Of those, Dunkley, Gilmore, Capricornia, Forde and Chisholm are considered likely to be held by the Coalition, taking it to 75 seats, while Hindmarsh in South Australia and Cowan in Western Australia are leaning towards Labor.
Turnbull said on Sunday he remained “quietly confident” of returning his coalition to power for another three-year term.
“Mr. Turnbull’s economic program, such as it was, has been rejected by the people of Australia”.
The Labor leader, jubilant from his party’s stronger than expected showing in the election in which there is even a chance of them forming a minority government, was going in for the kill on Monday.
As counting was due to resume today, Hanson, who caused a storm in Australia and overseas over her attacks on Asian immigration as an MP in the Nineties, was preparing to make a return to parliament 20 years after she was first elected.
Launching a stinging rebuke, Mr Shorten likened Mr Turnbull’s position to that of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who called a referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union – which he effectively lost – and subsequently announced his resignation.
“He leads a divided party, he has had an election and he has delivered an inferior and unstable outcome”, Shorten said.
“(But) the Coalition would not be keen on having another election because it would look bad for them and they would nearly certainly do worse”, he said.
The shift to the opposition Labor Party and independent groups is a major blow for Turnbull who had gambled on a risky double dissolution of parliament in a bid to oust intransigent independents in the upper house Senate blocking his economic agenda.
Australia has had five prime ministers in the past six years.
Before counting was paused on the weekend, the Labor Party had won 67 seats to the coalition’s 65 with the Greens Party picking up one seat and independents claiming four.
“We will work with the Liberals, we will work with the crossbenchers and the minor parties because this country, and this parliament, is too important to fall foul of needless partisanship”, he said.
With little clarity, conservative forces in the Coalition are furious at their losses – with a best-case scenario of 77 seats and likely fewer than 76 seats, meaning Mr Turnbull is unable to command a Coalition majority in the lower house. “Quite frankly, I think he should quit”, Mr Shorten told reporters.
Turnbull, acting as caretaker prime minister while vote counting continues, appeared to have underestimated the protest vote that stole support from both major parties and must now negotiate with minor parties and independents to retain power.
Advertisement
“There is a fair bit of irony, I think”.
