HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A motion seeking a
leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply spill) is a colloquialism referring to a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (l ...
of the federal parliamentary leader of the
Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United A ...
and
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
was proposed by
Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...
, who requested the ballot on 14 September 2015. The incumbent Prime Minister,
Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...
, announced that a meeting of Liberal members of the
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...
and
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
would take place at 9:15 pm
AEST Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...
on 14 September 2015 for the purpose of a spill motion. During the meeting a vote was held for the leadership and deputy leadership. Turnbull defeated Abbott, 54 votes to 44, becoming the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Prime Minister-nominee.
Julie Bishop Julie Isabel Bishop (born 17 July 1956) is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Curti ...
retained her position of deputy leader defeating Kevin Andrews 70 votes to 30. With no contender, a February 2015 leadership spill motion had seen Abbott defeat a motion to spill the leadership 61 votes to 39.


Background

Rumours of a leadership spill had continuously followed the Liberal Party for two years due to their poor performance in polls across all major news companies, with a motion for a spill being requested but ultimately defeated in February 2015. Following the February spill vote, Abbott delivered a speech to the members calling for their support and promised to consult more with backbench MPs. In this speech, as a follow-up to the poorly-received 2014 budget, Abbott made a new commitment to further cut tax rates for small businesses, promised that the 2015 budget would leave families better off and agreed to reduce the role his chief of staff
Peta Credlin Peta-Louise Mary Credlin (born 23 March 1971) is an Australian former political advisor who served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott for his term from September 2013 to September 2015. Tony Abbott was Prime Minister for exactly 1 ...
played in the government. After the Liberal Party meeting concluded, Abbott made a televised statement in which he said that "The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us". Michelle Grattan, writing in ''
The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robe ...
'', argued that the "narrow margin" of the vote left Abbott "deeply vulnerable to later destabilisation".
News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...
journalist
Malcolm Farr Malcolm Farr (born 2 August 1951 ) is a political journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery covering the Parliament of Australia in Canberra, Australia, Canberra, Australia. Work Based in Canberra, Farr is the National Political Editor for News. ...
wrote that Abbott had been "given, at best, a stay of execution". In May, information was leaked about citizenship changes. In August, daily talking points for ministers were leaked to Fairfax Media, which included that 'cabinet was functioning well'. Abbott was perceived as extremely gaffe-prone. Just days before losing the prime ministership, he was captured on footage laughing out loud in response to a joke made by minister
Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...
about rising sea levels in Pacific island nations. Both were immediately drawn to the attention of the microphone and cringed, and when later pressed by the media with the footage shown, both refused to confirm or deny what was said. Also of concern was the loss of their state government counterparts at the
2014 Victorian election The 2014 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 29 November 2014, was for the 58th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and 40 seats in the Victorian Legislative Council were up for election. The incumb ...
and particularly the 2015 Queensland election. In South Australia, the rival
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...
government went from minority to
majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats ...
after a surprise win at the 2014 Fisher by-election, several months after the Liberal opposition's fourth consecutive loss following the 2014 South Australian election. In addition, multiple polls predicted a double-digit two-party swing at the 2015 Canning by-election against the Abbott Government, which may have sparked a realisation in the Abbott Government that a lack of voter support was becoming entrenched. Under Turnbull the Liberal candidate retained the seat for his party despite having to rely on preferences after suffering a primary and two-party
swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...
. Abbott's proposal to take marriage equality to a non-binding plebiscite in 2017 may have encouraged conservative Liberals to support Turnbull in the spill on the understanding that Turnbull would honour that commitment. On Friday 11 September, Simon Benson published a
leak A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container. Leaks are usually ...
from a "senior source" that a
Cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in par ...
would dump up to six ministers.
Turnbull said that the leak was a " etaCredlin special" and rallied supporters to support a leadership challenge. That day, Deputy Government Whip Andrew Nikolic sent Turnbull a letter on Abbott's behalf asking Turnbull to publicly rule out a leadership challenge. Turnbull refused on the grounds that this would only fuel speculation. A meeting in regard to the leadership was held on Sunday 13 September at the home of Dr
Peter Hendy Peter Gerard Hendy, Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill (born 19 March 1953) is a British transport executive and politician. He is the current chairman of Network Rail and was formerly the Commissioner of Transport for London. Education Hendy was ...
, attended by
Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...
, Wyatt Roy,
Arthur Sinodinos Arthur Sinodinos (born 25 February 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former Liberal Party politician who has been Ambassador to the United States since February 2020. He served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister John Howard from 1997 to 200 ...
,
Mitch Fifield Mitchell Peter Fifield (born 16 January 1967) is the Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations. He is a former Australian politician who served as a Senator for Victoria from 2004 to 2019, representing the Liberal Party. He wa ...
,
Mal Brough Malcolm Thomas Brough ( ; born 29 December 1961) is a former Australian politician. He represented the Liberal Party in the House of Representatives (1996–2007, 2013–2016) and held ministerial office in the Howard and Turnbull Governments. ...
, James McGrath and Scott Ryan, and Julie Bishop's chief of staff, Murray Hansen. However, on Monday 14 September, anonymous sources confirmed in the early morning to news companies that Turnbull, then Minister for Communications, was planning to try and oust Tony Abbott. Abbott brushed off rumours of a leadership spill in the morning, but was unable to secure the verbal support of both Turnbull and Bishop. At around midday, Bishop had a conversation with Tony Abbott where she told him that he had "lost the backing of the majority of the party room and the majority of the cabinet". The ''
Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' reports that Abbott offered the job of deputy to
Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for th ...
, who turned it down due to the leaks that Joe Hockey would be dumped as Treasurer. Andrews, who had previously been the target of a leak, was a conservative candidate for deputy. At 4 pm
AEST Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...
, Turnbull held a press conference where he announced that he would be launching a challenge to Abbott's leadership, believing that the Prime Minister had "not been capable of providing the economic leadership" that Australia and business needed. Turnbull stated that a "style of leadership that respects the people's intelligence" was needed. He also cited that Prime Minister Abbott had lost 30 consecutive
Newspoll Newspoll is an Australian opinion polling brand, published by ''The Australian'' and administered by international market research and data analytics group, YouGov. Newspoll has a long tradition of predicting Australian Federal Election resul ...
s for preferred Prime Minister, a statement he later regretted because it became a test for his own popularity as Prime Minister. Shorten held a news conference later and stated that a change of leader of the Liberal party would not change the policies. After formally launching his challenge, Abbott held a press conference two hours later at 6:15 pm AEST to confirm that a leadership vote would be happening that evening. Abbott is the shortest-serving Australian Prime Minister since
William McMahon Sir William McMahon (23 February 190831 March 1988) was an Australian politician who served as the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1971 to 1972 as leader of the Liberal Party. He was a government minister for over 21 years, ...
and aside from Kevin Rudd's second incarnation which lasted for three months in 2013.


Endorsements prior to vote by Liberal MPs

Prior to the vote some MPs had publicly announced whom they intended to vote for. ;Tony Abbott At 6:30 pm AEST,
Joe Hockey Joseph Benedict Hockey (born 2 August 1965) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He was the Member of Parliament for North Sydney from 1996 until 2015. He was the Treasurer of Australia in the Abbott Government from 18 September ...
addressed the press, describing Turnbull's claims as unfounded, listing the Government's economic achievements and expressing his loyalty to the Prime Minister. At around 6:50 pm AEST,
Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...
and Mathias Cormann confirmed on
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the he ...
that they would be supporting Abbott in the spill motion. Liberal members,
Craig Kelly Craig Kelly (born 29 September 1963) is an Australian politician, who represented the Division of Hughes as a Liberal Party and later United Australia Party MP from 2010 to his defeat at the 2022 Australian federal election. Kelly initially ...
and
Ian Goodenough Ian Reginald Goodenough (born 3 July 1975) is a Singaporean-born Australian politician who is the current Liberal Party member for the Division of Moore in the House of Representatives, located in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Austral ...
announced on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
their support for Abbott. Kevin Andrews,
Eric Abetz Eric Abetz (born 25 January 1958) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for Tasmania from 1994 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for Employment and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Abbo ...
,
Cory Bernardi Cory Bernardi (born 6 November 1969) is an Australian conservative political commentator and former politician. He was a Senator for South Australia from 2006 to 2020, and was the leader of the Australian Conservatives, a minor political party ...
,
Josh Frydenberg Joshua Anthony Frydenberg () (born 17 July 1971) is an Australian former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2018 to 2022. He also served as a member of parliament (MP) for the divisi ...
, Andrew Nikolic and
Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for th ...
announced during the lead up to the vote that they supported Tony Abbott. ;Malcolm Turnbull Early in the day Bishop as Deputy Leader informed Abbott that he did not have her confidence and she would support Turnbull. Wyatt Roy stated to a 2GB radio host that he would be supporting Turnbull.
Arthur Sinodinos Arthur Sinodinos (born 25 February 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former Liberal Party politician who has been Ambassador to the United States since February 2020. He served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister John Howard from 1997 to 200 ...
announced that he would support Turnbull in the spill motion.
Christopher Pyne Christopher Maurice Pyne (born 13 August 1967) is a retired Australian politician. As a member of the Liberal Party, he held several ministerial positions in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, and served as a member of pa ...
,
George Brandis George Henry Brandis (born 22 June 1957) is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party, and was a cabinet minister in the Abbott and Turnbull governments. He was later ...
,
Mitch Fifield Mitchell Peter Fifield (born 16 January 1967) is the Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations. He is a former Australian politician who served as a Senator for Victoria from 2004 to 2019, representing the Liberal Party. He wa ...
,
Marise Payne Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who served in the Morrison Government as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2022 and as Minister for Women from 2019 to 2022. She has been a Senator for New South Wales s ...
and
Simon Birmingham Simon John Birmingham (born 14 June 1974) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since 2007. A member of the Liberal Party, he served in the Morrison Government as Minister for Finance from 2020 to 2022 and as Mi ...
announced throughout the night that they would support Turnbull.


Vote

At around 8:35 pm AEST, chief government whip Scott Buchholz announced on Twitter that the party meeting would commence at 9:15 pm.@ScottBuchholzMP: Joint party room meeting tonight, 9.15pm. / CLARIFICATION just Liberal party room meeting.
''Twitter'', 14 September 2015.
Turnbull won the spill motion with 54 votes to Abbott's 44. There were a total of 99 Liberal MPs and senators who participated in the vote, one member voted informally. Bishop won the position of Deputy Leader with 70 votes, to Andrews' 30 votes. 100 members participated in the vote for Deputy Leader, the member who voted informally in the spill for leader voted formally and Senator
Michael Ronaldson Michael John Clyde Ronaldson (born 13 February 1954) is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for the state of Victoria representing the Liberal Party from July 2005 until February 2016, and previously served in the House of Repres ...
arrived in time for the vote. With Turnbull's second incarnation as leader, Bishop who has been deputy leader since 2007 has retained this position for a fourth leadership cycle. Turnbull's victory occurred two days shy of the seventh anniversary since his first election as leader on 16 September 2008 when he defeated
Brendan Nelson Brendan John Nelson (born 19 August 1958) is a business leader and former Australian politician. He served as the federal Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2008, going on to serve as Australia's senior diplomat to the European Union and NA ...
. The change of Prime Minister also means that Australia has had five Prime Ministers in six years. Turnbull is the first former Opposition Leader (in contrast to a sitting one) to become Prime Minister.


Aftermath


Malcolm Turnbull

At 10:40 pm AEST Turnbull and Bishop addressed the press and acknowledged the debt the party owed to Tony Abbott and the Abbott Government's achievements. Turnbull said he would not go to an early election to seek a mandate from the people and that his government would maintain the climate change targets that the Abbott Government committed to. On 21 August 2018, facing a revolt by conservative MPs, Turnbull called a
leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply spill) is a colloquialism referring to a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (l ...
. He was challenged by Peter Dutton but narrowly survived. After continued unrest, Turnbull called another spill on 24 August and chose not to stand, resulting in Scott Morrison defeating Dutton to become Turnbull's successor as Prime Minister.


Julie Bishop

In addition to addressing the press on the evening of 14 September, Bishop was interviewed by Channel 9 on the morning of 15 September. On the morning of 15 September, Bishop stated that Abbott had asked for six months to turn things around and that seven months later, the majority of the party room felt that had not occurred. Bishop continued as
Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
in the Turnbull Government until August 2018 when she resigned following a failed leadership bid.


John Howard

Former Liberal Prime Minister
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
addressed the media at 1:45 pm AEST on 15 September. Howard praised the Abbott Government's achievements and affirmed that he would support Turnbull in government. He stated that the Australian people would decide if the Liberal Party had made the right choice. Howard, when asked, refused to say where Abbott went wrong, but did state he believed the consistent bad polls, not the media, were ultimately responsible for the spill.


Tony Abbott

Abbott addressed the media at 12:40 pm on 15 September. Abbott stated that he had never leaked or undermined anyone, and he would not start now. He stated that being Prime Minister is not an end in itself, it was about serving. He asserted that the nature of politics had changed in the last decade, with a "febrile media culture" rewarding "treachery". Abbott exhorted the media to refuse to parlay with people who won't put their names to their comments. Abbott's final speech as Prime Minister on 15 September did not address his political future. However, he announced the next day that he would remain in Parliament. Despite his promise of "no sniping" in his final speech as Prime Minister, media outlets reported ongoing sniping from the Abbott camp in the following months, particularly around Islamic issues. In early December 2015, Abbott said he would not make a decision on his political future until April 2016. Subsequent national polling indicated widespread support for the removal of Abbott as Prime Minister and Liberal leader. A ReachTel poll of 743 residents in Abbott's safe Liberal seat of Warringah, conducted by phone on the evening of 17 December 2015, indicated his electorate wanted him to retire from parliament at the next election.
The Australia Institute The Australia Institute is a left-wing public policy think tank based in Canberra, Australia. Since its launch in 1994, it has carried out research on a broad range of economic, social, and environmental issues. The institute has offices in Ca ...
executive director, Ben Oquist, who commissioned the independent polling, claimed: "The polling indicates that the electorate is quickly moving on from the Tony Abbott era". Abbott recontested his electoral seat of Warringah at the 2016 federal election, and won with 52% of the primary vote. Since Abbott's re-election at the 2016 federal election he has been critical of policy positions of his party on a number of occasions.


Liberal Party voting rules

Under Liberal Party rules, any Liberal member of parliament or senator can propose a motion to spill the party's leadership. The leader of the party then invites a discussion of the motion at a party room meeting and makes a decision whether to call a vote on the matter based on the sentiments which are expressed. The leader chooses whether to conduct the vote through a public show of hands or a secret ballot; historically it has been conducted by secret ballot. If a vote on the spill motion is conducted and a majority supports a spill, the leadership is declared to be vacant. Candidates then nominate for the position and a vote is held among the members present at the meeting. If more than two people nominate and no candidate wins a majority, further rounds of voting take place, with the lowest-placed candidate being eliminated until a candidate wins a majority of the vote in a ballot and is therefore the winner.


See also

* February 2015 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill motion * Turnbull Government * Abbott Government


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015 09 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill 2015 elections in Australia Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill