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The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by
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 ...
Scott Morrison 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 ...
, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn in by the Governor-General of Australia
The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Liberal– National
bcc.com; 28 May 2019 In
The Liberal-National Coalition won office under the leadership of
Australian Broadcasting Corporation; 10 October 2015
''The Sydney Morning Herald''; 9 March 2016Kevin Andrews says remarks about challenging Turnbull for leadership 'hypothetical'
Australian Broadcasting Corporation; 5 April 2016 In April 2018, the government reached the 30-consecutive-Newspoll-losses benchmark Turnbull had used to unseat Abbott. The government suffered by-election losses in July 2018. Dissent from conservative MPs over issues such as energy prices grew during Turnbull's final months. On 21 August, ahead of his 39th consecutive Newspoll loss, Turnbull announced a leadership spill, which he narrowly won against
Morrison was sworn in as prime minister on 24 August 2018, by the Governor-General, Sir
Morrison had served as Treasurer in the Turnbull government, and was succeeded by Josh Frydenberg in the role. In September, Treasurer Frydenberg announced that the government would deliver a smaller budget deficit than forecast for 2017–18, and that the budget was on track to return to balance by 2019–20. Th
Final Budget Outcome
deficit of $10.1 billion was $19.3bn smaller than predicted, and the smallest recorded since the
www.afr.com; 27 Nov 2018 Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down the budget in a speech to parliament on the night of 2 April. The budget forecast a small
dfat.gov.au
Morrison has signalled that his government could accept New Zealand's offer to accept refugees detained by Australia on Manus and Nauru if they were subject to a lifetime ban from coming to Australia.
Due to the
www.abc.net.au; 8 Nov 2018Major moves: Morrison has remade Australia’s strategic position
www.theaustralian.com.au; 23 Nov 2018 The "pivot to the Pacific" has been read as a way of undermining Chinese influence in the region. At the Pacific Islands Forum in August 2019 the 'Pivot to the Pacific' was severely undermined by Morrison's intransigence on the topic of climate change. In the face of an existential threat to those Morrison refers to as "family", Morrison refused to offer more than tokenism. The "very insulting and condescending" behaviour offered by Morrison comes as the Deputy PM tells an Australian business group that Pacific Islanders will survive "because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit".
The Morrison government denounced the February 2022
In April 2014, the Abbott government announced approval for the
The Morrison government's second term commenced with the historic appointment of
''The Canberra Times''; 10 January 2020 While touring bushfire hit communities in Queensland on 13 September, Morrison announced that people affected by the fires would be eligible for additional financial assistance of up to 13 weeks of support payments equivalent to the maximum rate of the Newstart Allowance. By November, fires had ignited in all states, and the severity of the fires worsened through December. On 11 December the Morrison government committed an $11 million grant to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC), which coordinates the air fleet of federal, state and territory governments. On 4 January, the Prime Minister confirmed that the grant would become a permanent annual increase, and committed $20m to lease four extra large air tankers to combat the fires. On Christmas Eve 2019 the government granted public service volunteer firefighters an extra four weeks paid leave, and committed up to $6000 for volunteers from the private sector on 26 December. The government also announced on 26 December an additional deployment of
$60 billion
'' error in the calculation. The JobKeeper program would pay employers up to $1500 a fortnight per full-time, part-time or casual employee that has worked for that business for over a year. For a business to be eligible, they must have lost 30% of turnover after 1 March of annual revenue up to and including $1 billion. For businesses with a revenue of over $1 billion, turnover must have decreased by 50%. Businesses are then required by law to pay the subsidy to their staff, in lieu of their usual wages. This response came after the enormous job losses seen just a week prior when an estimated 1 million Australians lost their jobs. This massive loss in jobs caused the myGov website to crash and lines out of
www.smh.com.au; Mar 12, 2021Media Female Labor staffers share details of workplace sexual harassment and abuse
www.theguardian.com; 14 Mar, 2021 ; Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces On 5 March 2021, the Morrison government established the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces, with support from the Opposition and crossbench. The review was conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission and led by the Sex Discrimination Commission. The Review's Terms of Reference asked for recommendations to ensure that Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces were safe and respectful, reflecting best practice in the prevention and handling of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. The report found that men in parliament were "more likely to perpetrate sexual harassment, while women were more likely to bully". On 8 February, 2022, the Parliament issued a Statement of Acknowledgement of an "unacceptable history of workplace bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault in Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces" which committed the Parliament to "continuing to build safe and respectful workplaces." ; Rape allegations Two separate historical rape allegations became public in February 2021, one regarding the alleged conduct of the Morrison government's Attorney General
Coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
and succeeds the Abbott (2013–2015) and Turnbull (2015–2018) coalition governments in office, competing against the Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
as the major Opposition
Opposition may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
* The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
* '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...
party. Nationals Leader Michael McCormack served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy chief executive and the second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially created as a ministerial portfolio in 1968, althoug ...
from the formation of the Morrison government until June 2021. He was replaced as Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister by Barnaby Joyce
Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
.
Scott Morrison served as Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
in the Turnbull government and became Prime Minister following the resignation of 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 ...
in 2018. The Coalition had been led to government at the 2013 Election by 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 ...
, however 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 ...
became Prime Minister by challenging Abbott in 2015. Turnbull then led the Coalition to a narrow victory at the 2016 Election, and resigned in the midst of a challenge to his leadership by Minister for Home Affairs
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...
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 ...
in 2018. Turnbull then quit Parliament, plunging the Coalition into minority government following the 2018 Wentworth by-election
A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Wentworth took place on 20 October 2018 after the parliamentary resignation of the former Prime Minister of Australia and incumbent Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull.
The seat was won ...
. Elected leader of the Liberals over Dutton in the 2018 spill, Morrison then restored the Coalition to majority government at the 2019 Election.
With the commencement of the Morrison government, Josh Frydenberg replaced 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 ...
as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and replaced Morrison as Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
in the First Morrison Ministry, while 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 ...
took over from Bishop 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 ...
. Frydenberg and Payne remained in their posts in the Second Morrison Ministry, which was notable for including Ken Wyatt
Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian e ...
as Minister for Indigenous Australians
The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 196 ...
- the first Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...
to sit in Federal Cabinet - and seven women members, which was the largest number of women Cabinet members in Australian history.Ken Wyatt: Australia's first indigenous cabinet ministerbcc.com; 28 May 2019 In
economic affairs
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
, after producing the lowest federal budget deficit in a decade, Treasurer Frydenberg predicted a small surplus in the 2019 Federal Budget, however the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
led to a dramatic increase in government expenditure and a brief recession by September 2020. Pandemic management became a core focus of the Morrison government, which instigated tight border controls, convened a National Cabinet to co-ordinate State and Territory government responses, and initiated a program of income support for business and workers. Two years into the pandemic, Australia had achieved one of the lowest death rates and highest vaccination rates in the world. In February 2022, the Morrison government announced a re-opening of borders to international tourist travel. By the fourth Frydenberg Budget in March 2022 ahead of the 2022 Election, Australia’s unemployment rate was at 4% and projected to drop to 3.75%, its lowest figure in 50 years.
In trade and international affairs, the Morrison government concluded free trade agreements with Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
. In the Indo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth.
In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...
region, Morrison launched the Pacific Step-Up initiative to increase engagement with Pacific Island nations, and revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Japan, India and United States. He also signed the AUKUS
AUKUS (, ) is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered ...
trilateral security pact with the United Kingdom and the United States to increase defence co-operation. The period was marked by a deterioration in bilateral relations with the increasingly autocratic Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
government in China, with Australia calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...
and China responding with trade sanctions. Following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Morrison committed Australian military, diplomatic and humanitarian aid to support Ukraine's efforts to repel the Russian attack.
Morrison called the 2022 federal election on 10 April 2022, to be held on 21 May. After the majority of votes had been counted on election night, it became clear that the Coalition had no path to forming government. Morrison conceded the election, also announcing he would step down as leader of the Liberal Party. Labor leader Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
was sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia on 23 May 2022.
Background
Abbott wins office for Coalition
The Liberal-National Coalition won office under the leadership of 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 ...
in the 2013 Australian federal election
The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of A ...
in which Abbott defeated the second Rudd government and ended six years of Labor government. Abbott had sought election on a platform promising to: restore stability after Labor infighting; reduce wasteful spending and restore Budget surpluses; abolish the Labor government's carbon and mining taxes; halt the seaborne people smuggling of asylum seekers; build infrastructure; prioritise indigenous affairs; and run a foreign policy that was "less Geneva, more Jakarta.". "
In office, the Abbott government removed the Rudd-Gillard era Resource Super Profits Tax and carbon tax. With Scott Morrison as Minister Immigration and Border Protection, the government halted the people smuggling trade; concluded free trade agreements with China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
and South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
; established the National Commission of Audit to advise on restoring the Budget to surplus; instituted the Royal Commission into trade union governance and corruption
The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption was a Royal Commission established by the Government of Australia to inquire into alleged financial irregularities associated with the affairs of trade unions. The Australian Worke ...
; founded the Medical Research Future Fund
The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) is a research fund established in Australia by the Abbott Government. It is managed by the Future Fund, with interest generated going to medical research. In 2020-2021, the MRFF reached its capitalisation ...
; produced White Paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
s on Developing Northern Australia and the Agricultural Competitiveness; and promised a referendum to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution. Treasurer 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 ...
delivered two Budgets, the first focused on expenditure reduction measures, but faced a hostile reception in the Senate and media. Partial deregulation of universities, and a $7 contribution to doctor visits were proposed, but blocked by the Senate. The second Budget emphasised stimulus for the small business sector.
Internal dissatisfaction with Abbott's style and policy agenda emerged within a section of the Liberal Party room and coalesced around old rival 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 ...
, whom Abbott had replaced as Opposition Leader in 2009. In February 2015, the ABC reported that "tensions between the Prime Minister and the colleagues campaigning to oust him are heading to a showdown." A spill
A spill occurs when the contents of something, usually in liquid form, are emptied out onto a surface, person or clothes, often unintentionally.
Spill may also refer to:
*Oil spill
*Chemical spill
*Data spill
*Leadership spill
*Spill (audio), whe ...
called by two WA backbenchers failed to raise the numbers for a change in leadership, however leaking and backgrounding against Abbott continued, though polling for the Coalition began to improve.
Turnbull challenges Abbott
In September 2015,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 ...
ended speculation by launching a challenge against Abbott. Turnbull cited Newspoll results and "economic leadership" as reasons for mounting his challenge. on 14 September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull won a leadership ballot, 54 votes to 44, and the Turnbull government became the federal government of Australia. Turnbull appointed Scott Morrison as his Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
in an expanded ministry. The Turnbull government continued a number of Abbott government initiatives, maintaining Abbott's promise for a plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...
on same-sex marriage in Australia, and his carbon emissions targets. Unable to secure passage of Abbott's bill to re-establish an anti-corruption watchdog for the construction industry, Turnbull initiated a double dissolution
A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives ( lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissoluti ...
election. The election was held on 2 July, Under the slogan "jobs and growth," Turnbull then led the Coalition to the 2016 Election in which their majority in the House of Representatives was reduced to one seat.
Morrison becomes Prime Minister
Turnbull's ousting of Abbott had divided the Liberal Party rank and file and tensions continued in the parliamentary Party.NSW Liberals groan as Malcolm Turnbull tells gathering party is not ruled by factions, new PM praises Tony AbbottAustralian Broadcasting Corporation; 10 October 2015
''The Sydney Morning Herald''; 9 March 2016Kevin Andrews says remarks about challenging Turnbull for leadership 'hypothetical'
Australian Broadcasting Corporation; 5 April 2016 In April 2018, the government reached the 30-consecutive-Newspoll-losses benchmark Turnbull had used to unseat Abbott. The government suffered by-election losses in July 2018. Dissent from conservative MPs over issues such as energy prices grew during Turnbull's final months. On 21 August, ahead of his 39th consecutive Newspoll loss, Turnbull announced a leadership spill, which he narrowly won against
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 ...
. Turnbull resigned three days later after losing the confidence of his party room. Scott Morrison declared himself a candidate for leadership and won the resultant spill, defeating Dutton and 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 ...
. He became Australia's 30th Prime Minister. After an eleven-year run as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, 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 ...
garnered just 11 votes out of the 85-member party room, and quit her position as Foreign Minister to go to the backbench.
Dutton committed to serving in and supporting the Morrison government, while Turnbull and Bishop were disaffected by the results of the leadership challenge. A week after losing the leadership, Turnbull formally tendered his resignation from federal parliament. He became a trenchant critic of his successor Scott Morrison and backed independent candidates to replace Liberals in subsequent by-elections and elections. Bishop told a ''Women's Weekly'' awards event in the month after the spill that it had prompted discussion on the "bullying, intimidation, harassment and coercion" by federal politicians and "unfair unequal treatment of women". She joined Turnbull in calling for "clarity" around Dutton's eligibility to sit in Parliament, and refused to say how she would vote in the event of a referral. Bishop announced she would quit politics and not re-contest her seat in a statement to parliament in February 2019.
In December 2018, the Liberal Party room voted for a change in Party rules regarding leadership spills, and announced that a sitting prime minister who has won an election could no longer be removed by the Party room unless there was a two-thirds majority calling for the change. Opposition Leaders could still be challenged with a simple majority. Morrison said the move was in response to public disgust at the repeated rolling of Prime Ministers over the preceding decade.
Minority government
Turnbull's resignation necessitated the2018 Wentworth by-election
A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Wentworth took place on 20 October 2018 after the parliamentary resignation of the former Prime Minister of Australia and incumbent Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull.
The seat was won ...
. The Turnbull government had won the 2016 federal election with a single seat majority in the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
(76 seats out of 150). Turnbull nevertheless refused to campaign for his successor Liberal candidate Dave Sharma
Devanand Noel "Dave" Sharma (born 21 December 1975) is an Australian former politician and former public servant and diplomat who served as member of parliament for Wentworth from 2019 to 2022. He lost the seat at the 2022 election to inde ...
. The by-election was held on 20 October 2018, and independent candidate Kerryn Phelps
Kerryn Lyndel Phelps (born 14 December 1957) is an Australian medical practitioner, public health and civil rights advocate, medical educator and former politician.
She was the first woman to be elected president of the Australian Medical Asso ...
was elected, with a swing of almost twenty percent away from the Liberals. It was the first time since the inaugural 1901 election that the seat had not been represented by the Liberals, its predecessors, or party defectors. One of Phelps' campaign promises was to bring more humane treatment of asylum seekers held on Manus Island (in the Manus Regional Processing Centre
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Au ...
) and Nauru
Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in ...
(in the Nauru Regional Processing Centre), which was partly brought to fruition with the passing of the "Medevac bill" early in 2019.
Turnbull's quitting of Parliament also contributed to the defection of two of the Coalition's MPs to the crossbenches
A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...
, which reduced the Coalition to a minority on the floor of Parliament. National Party MP Kevin Hogan had threatened to move to the crossbench if Turnbull was ousted as Prime Minister. On 27 August 2018, three days after Morrison succeeded Turnbull as leader, Hogan confirmed that he would sit on the crossbench, while remaining a member of the National Party and providing confidence and supply
In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house.
A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...
to the government.
The loss of Turnbull's seat together with the subsequent defection of the Liberal Member for Chisholm Julia Banks
Julia Helen Banks (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian lawyer and politician. Elected as the member for Chisholm in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2016 federal election, Banks was the only candidate for the governing Li ...
to the crossbench on 27 November, reduced the government's numbers to 73. Banks made the announcement while Morrison was announcing a timetable for Budget surplus in 2019. She told Parliament her former Party had "changed largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing who talk about and to themselves rather than listening to the people." ''The Guardian'' reported that the move undercut Morrison's efforts to stabilise the government and project a plan for the next election. Banks promised confidence and supply
In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house.
A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...
to the government. She told Fairfax Media that she was prepared to refer Turnbull's challenger Peter Dutton to the High Court over his eligibility to sit in Parliament, a move that would further reduce the government's numbers on the floor of the House. Banks ran as an independent in the subsequent 2019 Election, but lost to the Liberal candidate. The seat of Wentworth also returned to the Liberals with the election of former diplomat Dave Sharma
Devanand Noel "Dave" Sharma (born 21 December 1975) is an Australian former politician and former public servant and diplomat who served as member of parliament for Wentworth from 2019 to 2022. He lost the seat at the 2022 election to inde ...
.
First Ministry
Morrison was sworn in as prime minister on 24 August 2018, by the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove
General (Australia), General Sir Peter John Cosgrove, (born 28 July 1947) is a retired senior Australian Army officer who served as the 26th governor-general of Australia, in office from 2014 to 2019.
A graduate of the Royal Military College, ...
, in a ceremony at Government House. The newly elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Josh Frydenberg was the only other minister sworn in, as Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
. Morrison told the press that his government would return stability and unity to the country. National Party Leader Michael McCormack continued as Deputy Prime Minister. On 26 August, Morrison announced that Senator 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 ...
would succeed the resigning 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 ...
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 ...
. 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 ...
retained his job as Home Affairs Minister, but had his responsibilities split to separate out the Immigration portfolio, with that job going to David Coleman
David Robert Coleman OBE (26 April 1926 – 21 December 2013) was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from ...
. Turnbull supporter 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 ...
replaced Senator Payne as Defence Minister and Steve Ciobo was selected for the Defence Industry role. 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 ...
took over Mr Ciobo's former job as Trade Minister. Melissa Price was promoted into Cabinet and as Environment Minister. Angus Taylor was given the Energy portfolio. Dan Tehan
Daniel Thomas Tehan (; born 27 January 1968) is an Australian politician who was the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment in the Morrison Government from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Liberal Party and previously served as Minist ...
became Education Minister. Deposed Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce
Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
, who had been previously ousted by Turnbull, was appointed as Special Envoy for Drought Assistance and Recovery. The Ministry was sworn in on 28 August 2018.
On 17 December 2018, Andrew Broad
Andrew John Broad (born 2 July 1975 in , Western Australia) is a former Australian politician who represented Mallee in the Australian House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019 as a member of The Nationals. He was Assistant Minister to the D ...
resigned over a sex scandal. On 19 January 2019, Kelly O'Dwyer, Minister for Women, Jobs and Industrial Relations, announced that she would not be contesting the upcoming election as her two children would be approaching primary school age and she wanted to give her and her husband the best opportunity for a third child. Within one week, Human Services Minister Michael Keenan and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party in federal parliament. ...
also announced that they would not recontest their seats at the 2019 election, widely attributed to the low chances of the Morrison government being re-elected.
First term of government 2018–2019
Economy
Morrison had served as Treasurer in the Turnbull government, and was succeeded by Josh Frydenberg in the role. In September, Treasurer Frydenberg announced that the government would deliver a smaller budget deficit than forecast for 2017–18, and that the budget was on track to return to balance by 2019–20. ThFinal Budget Outcome
deficit of $10.1 billion was $19.3bn smaller than predicted, and the smallest recorded since the
Global Financial Crisis
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
. The result had been assisted by larger tax intakes and less spending on social security than expected. The Treasurer credited the result to the Coalition's economic management with real spending growth down to its lowest level in half a century. In October 2018, ''The Economist'' described Australia as possessing "the world’s most successful economy".
The " tampon tax": the Goods and Services Tax applied to feminine hygiene products, will be removed as of 1 January 2019.
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, also known as the Banking Royal Commission and the Hayne Royal Commission, was a royal commission established on 14 December 2017 by the Austra ...
was handed down in February, with 76 recommendations. There were only five remaining sitting days in Parliament, so there is little time for a legislative response before the election. Labor has indicated that it intends to work with the crossbench to extend the sitting days for Parliament, however, Christopher Pyne, speaking for the government, has pointed out that these laws are complex and should not be rushed through.
Federal Budget
Morrison said the government would "continue to consolidate the budget", but its priorities for spending included additional school and hospital funding, affordable medicines and the national disability insurance scheme. In November, Morrison and Frydenberg announced the 2019 Federal Budget would be brought forward a month to 2 April. "We will be handing down a budget and it will be a surplus budget. It will be a budget which is the product of the years of hard work of our government," Morrison said.Scott Morrison announces federal budget on 2 April, election in Maywww.afr.com; 27 Nov 2018 Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down the budget in a speech to parliament on the night of 2 April. The budget forecast a small
surplus
Surplus may refer to:
* Economic surplus, one of various supplementary values
* Excess supply, a situation in which the quantity of a good or service supplied is more than the quantity demanded, and the price is above the equilibrium level determ ...
of $7.1 billion in the upcoming financial year (2019–20), though it was technically in deficit as the existing financial year came to a close. The leading statements made were a cash rebate targeted toward lower and middle-income earners, with the Coalition promising to double the low and middle income tax offset it offered workers in the previous year's budget, giving voters on incomes between $50,000 and $90,000 a rebate of $1,080, similar to the Labor Party's proposals. The budget was criticised by the opposition for proposing to flatten the tax rates of all income earners between $45,000-$200,000 to 30% in the long-term, though the Treasurer argued that doing so would provide an "incentive orpeople to stay in work, to work longer, to work more." The government also promised $100 billion infrastructure funding over the decade and offered one-off payments for nearly 4 million welfare recipients to cover the cost of energy prices, which Labor supported. Labor's budget reply differed from the government most notably with a $2.3 billion proposal to cover medical imaging, consultation and medicines' costs for cancer patients. Overall, Labor had approximately $200 billion more funding than the Coalition to utilise over the decade; as it proposed more revenue raising, including scaling back negative gearing
Negative gearing is a form of financial leverage whereby an investor borrows money to acquire an income-producing investment and the gross income generated by the investment (at least in the short term) is less than the cost of owning and mana ...
and abolishing cash refunds for excess franking credits, policies which were vociferously opposed by the government.
Foreign affairs, defence and trade
Morrison shiftedMarise 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 ...
from the Defence Portfolio to the role of Minister for Foreign Affairs
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 cou ...
, following the resignation of 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 ...
from the role. He visited Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...
for the Australia–Indonesia Business Forum and met with President Joko Widodo
Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...
on his first overseas visit as prime minister. The Morrison government and Indonesia announced the substantive conclusion of negotiations on the Indonesia -Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) on 31 August 2018.Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreementdfat.gov.au
Morrison has signalled that his government could accept New Zealand's offer to accept refugees detained by Australia on Manus and Nauru if they were subject to a lifetime ban from coming to Australia.
Due to the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist was assassinated by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi assassins. His body ...
, the Australian government has pulled out of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli embassy
During the Wentworth by-election campaign, and following the announcement by the United States that it would relocate its embassy in Israel fromTel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
to Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, Morrison announced he was reviewing whether Australia's embassy in Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
should move to Jerusalem. Indonesia responded by putting the free trade agreement on hold, though it was eventually signed in Jakarta in March 2019. In December 2018, Morrison announced Australia has recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but will not immediately move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
Pacific Step-Up
Ahead of the 2018 APEC Forum in PNG, the Morrison government announced increased defence co-operation with Pacific nations including a plan to jointly develop a naval base on Manus Island with Papua New Guinea and a "pivot to the Pacific" involving the establishment of a $2 billion infrastructure bank for the Pacific to be known as the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility, to issue grants and long-term loans for projects such as telecommunications, energy, transport and water development. Morrison also pledged to open diplomatic missions inPalau
Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the ...
, the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Inte ...
, French Polynesia
)Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze")
, anthem =
, song_type = Regional anthem
, song = "Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui"
, image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of French ...
, Niue
Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between T ...
and the Cook Islands
)
, image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, capital = Avarua
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Avarua
, official_languages =
, lan ...
.Scott Morrison reveals multi-billion-dollar infrastructure development bank for Pacificwww.abc.net.au; 8 Nov 2018Major moves: Morrison has remade Australia’s strategic position
www.theaustralian.com.au; 23 Nov 2018 The "pivot to the Pacific" has been read as a way of undermining Chinese influence in the region. At the Pacific Islands Forum in August 2019 the 'Pivot to the Pacific' was severely undermined by Morrison's intransigence on the topic of climate change. In the face of an existential threat to those Morrison refers to as "family", Morrison refused to offer more than tokenism. The "very insulting and condescending" behaviour offered by Morrison comes as the Deputy PM tells an Australian business group that Pacific Islanders will survive "because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit".
Indonesia Economic Partnership
TheIndonesia–Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
The Indonesia–Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA; id, Perjanjian Kemitraan Ekonomi Komprehensif Indonesia–Australia) is a bilateral agreement signed between Australia and Indonesia in March 2019, ratified by Austr ...
(IA-CEPA) was signed by the Trade Minister 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 ...
in March 2019. Australia ratified the agreement in November 2019 (alongside CEPAs with Peru, Hong Kong and China) and Indonesia followed suit in February 2020, with its provisions coming into effect in April 2020. The agreement secured greater access for Australian agriculture and education into the Indonesian market. In an historic address to the Australian Parliament following the ratification of the agreement, Indonesian President Joko Widodo
Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elit ...
welcomed the pact and said that Australia is Indonesia's closest friend, while calling on the two democracies to battle against identity politics, improve human rights, foster greater tolerance and stop terrorism. Morrison said in reply "We now have a plan of action to take the next steps in our relationship — from trade and investment to defence, counter-terrorism, maritime security, ocean sustainability and education, to name only some — and even today we add energy and the future of fuel sources for our nations to this long list."
Energy and climate change
After taking office, Morrison appointed Angus Taylor as Minister for Energy, saying "I am going to be the Prime Minister for getting electricity prices down. Angus Taylor is the minister for getting electricity prices down and that is a core focus of my government..." Morrison committed to remaining in theParis Agreement
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and ...
settled under the Abbott and Turnbull Governments, but promised a greater focus on reduction of energy prices. He described coal as remaining "a key source of keeping electricity prices down and keeping the lights on, and I intend for it to stay there". The Morrison government did not commit to replacing the existing renewable energy target with anything when it expires in 2020, stating that it will not be needed to meet emissions reduction targets.
The government has implemented the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
's review recommendations into electricity prices by asking energy retailers to introduce a default market offer for households and small businesses, which would be standard across all retailers. This is designed to assist consumers who do not regularly change their power provider.
Australian school students were inspired by Greta Thunberg
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation.
Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...
to strike for three days after 28 November, ignoring the call of their Prime minister Scott Morrison who said in the parliament that "what we want is more learning in schools and less activism".
According to the government's 2018 emissions projections report, Australia has already achieved its 2030 emissions reduction target of 26-28% less emissions than in 2005. The government expects Australia will exceed its 2030 target.
As of February, the Morrison government announced that it was taking its energy bill to the election, as it would likely be amended to prevent government funding of new coal-fired power stations.
Morrison has allocated $2bn over 10 years to the Abbott government-era Emissions Reduction Fund, renaming it the Climate Solutions Fund. A project that is expected to benefit from the Climate Solutions Fund is the Tasmanian Battery of the Nation hydro-electric project.
The government has endorsed the Snowy 2.0
The Snowy Mountains Scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; nine power stations; two pumping stations; and of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that ...
hydro-electric project, a proposal of the Turnbull government.
Social security
Morrison changed the age at which Australians can receive the age pension back to 67, from an age of 70, which had been government policy since the2014 Australian federal budget
The 2014 Australian federal budget was the federal budget to fund government services and operations for the 2014/15 financial year. The 2014 budget was the first delivered by the Abbott Government, since the Coalition's victory in the 2013 Au ...
. In September 2018, the base Newstart rate was raised by $2.20 per week, but further increases to Newstart have been ruled out by Morrison, who has stated that it is a "very expensive undertaking". The Liberal and Labor parties voted for a bill which would enforce a wait of four years before new migrants could receive social security payments.
In response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and repo ...
, Morrison delivered on 22 October 2018 a ''National Apology Address'' in the Australian Parliament to victims of child sexual abuse on behalf of the Australian people, the parliament and his government. He also announced the establishment of a National Redress Scheme for victims of child sexual abuse; an Office of Child Safety within the Department of Social Services; and a National Centre of Excellence to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse, to deal with the stigma, to support help seeking and guide best practice for training and other services.
Aged care and disability
Morrison brought forward aged care funding by $90 million, mainly focusing on regional areas. On 16 September 2018, Morrison revealed that a royal commission would be held into aged care facilities, focusing on the quality of care in residential, home and community aged care. On 5 April 2019, Morrison announced another commission, this time to examine violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation within the disability sector. The commission is headed by former Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville and will last for three years. Morrison was emotional at the announcement of the commission, paying tribute to his brother-in-law who hasmultiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This ...
. The announcement was met with praise from Labor leader Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...
, whose party had supported the idea in the past, as well as from Greens senator Jordon Steele-John
Jordon Alexander Steele-John (born 14 October 1994) is an Australian politician and disability rights advocate. He is a member of the Australian Senate as a representative of Western Australia, and is a member of the Australian Greens party.
St ...
, who had spent the previous year agitating for the government to support the policy and had heckled the government on the floor of the House of Representatives earlier in the year when it rejected holding a vote on a commission. In relation to disability funding, the government announced price increases of up to 22 per cent for NDIS service providers, though it was criticised for a $1.6 billion under-spend on the scheme in the budget. Labor argued the under-spend was due to the government's desire for a surplus budget, though the government countered that by arguing no one who needed care would be neglected and that the scheme was responding to actual demand.
Food safety
In response to the 2018 Australian strawberry contamination, Morrison announced an increase in the maximum jail term for the federal offence relating to contaminating food from 10 to 15 years. However, when a woman was arrested for the crime, she was charged under the Queensland Criminal Code.Education
The method of funding non-government schools was changed from using census data to using parental tax information; to take effect in 2020. On 20 September, Morrison announced a $4.6 billion funding deal over 10 years starting from 2020 for Catholic and Independent schools as a peace deal with two non-government sectors, after they bitterly opposed the Coalition's 2017 school funding changes. The agreement was seen as controversial to some including Labor and the Australian Education Union, who cited the fact that it did nothing for public schools. The National School Chaplaincy Programme, following the extension of its funding confirmed during the 2018 federal budget, will be the subject of a new agreement between the states and the commonwealth, requiring complaints against chaplains to be centrally recorded.Indigenous affairs
SenatorNigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party in federal parliament. ...
carried on as the Coalition's Minister for Indigenous Affairs
The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 196 ...
in the Morrison government, and in a conciliatory move by Morrison, the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was appointed the Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Indigenous Affairs, with a brief to focus on school attendance and performance. After initial scepticism, Abbott accepted the role.
;Remote education
Abbott presented his first report to Parliament as Special Envoy in December. He recommended increasing substantially the salary supplements and the retention bonuses for teachers in very remote areas; waiving HECS debt of longer term teachers in very remote schools; incentives for communities to adopt debit card
A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but ...
arrangements; an extension of the Remote School Attendance Strategy, with more local school buy-in and engagement; extension of the Good to Great Schools program that has reintroduced phonics and disciplined learning for further evaluation and emulation; and that the government should match the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation's private and philanthropic funding on an ongoing basis.
;Australia Day
Morrison criticised Byron Shire Council for moving its citizenship ceremonies from Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...
, rejecting calls to change the date of Australia Day and proposing a new national day to recognise Indigenous Australians.
; Uluru Statement and Indigenous voice to government
Morrison has rejected the '' Uluru Statement from the Heart'', characterising the recommended "Indigenous voice to Parliament" as a third chamber.
However, on 30 October 2019, Ken Wyatt
Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian e ...
, Minister for Indigenous Australians, announced the commencement of a "co-design process" aimed at providing an Indigenous voice to government. The Senior Advisory Group (SAG) is co-chaired by Professor Tom Calma , Chancellor of the University of Canberra
The University of Canberra (UC) is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and from Canberra's Civic Centre. U ...
, and Professor Dr Marcia Langton
Marcia Lynne Langton (born 1951) is an Australian academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Regarded as one of Australia's top intellectuals, L ...
, Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...
, and comprises a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country. There was some skepticism about the process from the beginning, with the criticism that it did not honour the ''Uluru Statement from the Heart''s plea to "walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future". According to Michelle Grattan, "...it is notable that it is calling it a 'voice to government' rather than a 'voice to parliament' ". Morrison rejected the proposal for a voice to parliament to be put into the Australian constitution
The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the A ...
; instead, the voice will be enshrined in legislation. The government also said it would run a referendum during its present term about recognising Indigenous people in the constitution "should a consensus be reached and should it be likely to succeed".
Media
The government announced an inquiry into theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...
, following the sacking of managing director Michelle Guthrie and reports that Guthrie had resisted a call from ABC Chair Justin Milne to fire journalist Emma Alberici
Emma Alberici (born 3 February 1970) is an Australian journalist and former foreign correspondent who was the chief economics correspondent for the ABC Television (Australian TV network), Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television network ...
. Milne was replaced by Ita Buttrose.
Commonwealth Integrity Commission
In December, the Morrison government proposed a national integrity commission framework. The previous August, Griffith University researchers had laid out a plan for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission, and Attorney-General Christian Porter had been working on adapting theAustralian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity
The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) is an Australian government statutory agency, created under the ''Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006''. Its role is to support the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner ...
into an anti-corruption watchdog in the Turnbull government. The framework has been criticised for its narrow remit and the decision not to allow public hearings, and not being allowed to take tip-offs, as well as the high burden of proof needed before an investigation can take place.
The Morrison government tabled an exposure draft in 2020, but insisted that Labor would have to support it before the government brought it to a vote. The CIC was not part of the Morrison government's agenda during the 2022 election campaign.
Environment
Algal blooms caused the death of over 10,000 fish in theDarling River
The Darling River (Paakantyi: ''Baaka'' or ''Barka'') is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its conflu
ence with the Murray River at Wentworth, New South Wales. Including its long ...
just before Christmas 2018. A second fish kill
The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off, refers to a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalized mortality of aquatic life.University of Florida. Gainesville, FL (2005) ''Plant Management in Fl ...
event happened in January, near the Menindee Lakes, which are a critical breeding ground for fish throughout the Murray-Darling. A report by the Productivity Commission
The Productivity Commission is the Australian Government's principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy, regulation and a range of other social and environmental issues.
The Productivity Commission was created as an independent a ...
was released in January 2019 that said that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority should be broken up. A third fish kill event occurred at the Menindee Lakes in late January. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian attributed the fish kills to the weather.
During the 2018-2019 summer season, there were also bushfires in Tasmania's heritage-listed areas and the 2019 Townsville flood. Melissa Price, the Minister for the Environment, was criticised as being absent from announcements made by Morrison, McCormack and David Littleproud
David Kelly Littleproud (born 4 September 1976) is an Australian politician who has been the leader of the National Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Maranoa since the 2016 federal election and was a cabinet mini ...
on these events.
Drought assistance
As Morrison took office, much of eastern Australia was suffering severe drought. In a politically conciliatory move, he appointed former National Leader Barnaby Joyce as a Special Envoy for drought assistance and recovery. The cost of the special envoyship was $675,000 in total expenses. Joyce produced no reports as a result of his role, saying that he had texted the Prime Minister. Freedom of information requests for these texts have been denied by the PMO. In October 2018, Morrison announced a drought assistance package, the Drought Future Fund, of $5 billion. The Drought Future Fund is intended to operate similarly to the Medical Futures Fund. However, the Drought Future Fund drew criticism from disability advocates, as $3.9 billion of the package's funding was drawn from money earmarked for theNational Disability Insurance Scheme
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a scheme of the Australian Government that funds costs associated with disability. The scheme was legislated in 2013 and went into full operation in 2020. The scheme is administered by the Na ...
.
Land-clearing inquiry
The Morrison government announced an inquiry into land-clearing laws following the Queensland bushfires. TheQueensland Government
The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...
had introduced laws against broad-scale land-clearing in May 2018, and David Littleproud said "If Queensland’s laws are locking up agriculture’s potential and making fires worse, we need to know about it".
Medical transfer of refugees
On 12 February 2019, the Morrison government suffered the first substantive defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives since 1929, after the Labor Party and several cross-benchers supported amendments to the ''Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018'' (the ''Home Affairs Bill'') proposed by the Senate. The proposed amendments would give greater weight to medical opinion in allowing themedical evacuation
Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...
of asylum seekers to Australia from Nauru
Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in ...
and Manus Island. Further amendments followed negotiations between the Opposition and the House of Reps cross-bench members, before the Senate considered and agreed to the amendments to its original amendments on the following day, 13 February. The amended legislation, which affected three laws, being the ''Migration Act 1958
The ''Migration Act 1958'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and pr ...
'', the '' Customs Act 1901'' and the ''Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978
A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...
'', became known as "the Medevac Bill", before being passed in the House by 75 votes to 74 and passed in the Senate by 36 votes to 34.
In response to the bill passing into law, Morrison announced the re-opening of the Christmas Island detention centre, intimating that this change in the law would provide the signal that people smugglers to begin operating again. In the days following, Dutton said that because of this change in the law, Australians on waiting lists for hospital treatment and those already in public housing were going to be adversely affected. This was seen by Robert Manne
Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual.
Background
Robert Manne was born in Mel ...
as a turning point in Labor Party policy, after having had almost identical asylum seeker policies as the Coalition for the past five years. He also pointed out the numerous obstacles any potential people-smuggler or asylum seeker would have to face, because the deterrent aspects of the policy were still firmly in place, and the new legislation applied only to the approximately 1,000 people still on Nauru and Manus (of whom only a relatively small number will be allowed to access the urgent medical attention they need).
However, the 2018 ruling was overturned in December 2019, after 37 votes to 35 supported the government's move to repeal the law.
Uranium mine
Just prior to the federal election, Melissa Price approved the Yeelirrie Uranium mine north of Kalgoorlie. Traditional owners challenged the former Barnett government's approval for the mine in court.Final pre-selections for 2019 Election
In November, reports emerged that the "moderate faction" of the NSW Liberal Party had relegated Liberal SenatorJim Molan
Major General Andrew James Molan, (born 11 April 1950) is an Australian politician and former major general in the Australian Army. He has been a Senator for New South Wales since November 2019, representing the Liberal Party. He was previously ...
to an "unwinnable" fourth position on the NSW Senate ticket, and were moving to dump conservative NSW MP Craig Kelly - a three term MP with a 9% margin in his electorate. ''The Australian's'' foreign editor Greg Sheridan called the move against Molan an act of "self-mutilation" against "the most capable, the best-known and the most impressive backbench senator in Australia". Journalist Michelle Grattan described Kelly as "all over the place in his comments", comparing media reports of Kelly's comments to branch members as reported by the ABC, and an interview with Sky News. Kelly indicated he might run as an independent if the Party dis-endorsed him, and Kent Johns was offered a $350,000 six-month job to withdraw from the preselection race by the president of Morrison's federal electoral conference.
When Morrison moved to head off the factional dispute over Kelly and others by using state executive powers to automatically endorse sitting members, Turnbull launched a failed intervention to prevent the outcome, hoping Kelly, a Dutton backer, would be ousted. Turnbull had approved a similar move by the Victorian state executive in July. He had also previously personally endorsed Kelly himself, but dismissed comparisons to his own intervention to save Kelly in 2016, citing recent campaigns in NSW to allow grassroots members more say in pre-selection contests as the reason for his intervention against Kelly this time.
When news of Turnbull lobbying against Kelly became public, Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman
Trent Moir Zimmerman (born 15 October 1968) is an Australian former politician. He was elected to succeed Joe Hockey as the Liberal Party of Australia member of the House of Representatives seat of North Sydney at the 2015 by-election. Zimmerma ...
said that Turnbull's intervention "meant that it became an issue about the Prime Minister's authority, and that swung the dial in favour of acceding to the request the Prime Minister had made of the Executive". Moderate members of the NSW branch agreed to abstain from a vote, effectively allowing Kelly and other sitting members such as Jason Falinski
Jason George Falinski (born 24 August 1970) is a former Australian Liberal Party politician. He was first elected as the Member for Mackellar in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2016 Australian election and was re-elected at the ...
, John Alexander and Lucy Wicks to be re-selected.
Journalists Michelle Grattan and Patricia Karvelas
Patricia Karvelas (born 29 January 1981) is an Australian radio presenter, current affairs journalist and political correspondent.
Karvelas currently hosts '' RN Breakfast'' on Radio National.
Early life
Karvelas was born in Australia to Gre ...
criticised the intervention for Kelly. Grattan wrote there had been no intervention in favour of moderate female candidate Jane Prentice
Jane Prentice (''née'' Righetti; born 22 June 1953) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2019, representing the Division of Ryan in Queensland. She previously served on the Brisba ...
, who had been an assistant minister. Karvelas wrote that it was extraordinary the party would intervene to "save a bloke" when "women MPs like Jane Prentice and Ann Sudmalis are not afforded the same intervention to stay on in Parliament when faced with preselection challenges." Zimmerman dismissed the comparison in an interview with Karvelas on ABC Radio, saying Sudmalis had quit, while Prentice's preselection had occurred prior to the instability occasioned by the departure of Turnbull. Despite being expected to win preselection, and being asked to remain by Morrison, Sudmalis had quit as a candidate for her marginal electorate following the removal of Turnbull as leader, citing grievances with the NSW division of the Party.
2019 federal election
Morrison called the election for 18 May 2019, the last date on which a concurrent election for both theSenate
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 ...
and House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
could occur. The government was widely anticipated to lose the vote, as almost all public polling conducted before and during the campaign suggested the Labor Party was on track to win a narrow majority. The government's focus during the election was on providing income tax
An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Ta ...
cuts for Australians in all tax brackets. Though both major parties policies on income tax cuts was similar in the short term, in the long term the Coalition sought to rise the top income threshold for the 19, 32.5 and 37 per cent tax brackets from July 2022, before eliminating the 37 per cent bracket in July 2024, which Labor considered fiscally irresponsible. The government also strongly opposed Labor's proposals to abolish cash refunds for franking credit recipients and negative gearing allowances for new properties.
The Coalition won 77 seats at the election and won 51.5% of the two-party preferred
In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP ...
vote. Morrison credited the victory to voters he called "the quiet Australians
"The quiet Australians" is an expression that was used by Australian politician Scott Morrison
when his Liberal/National Coalition unexpectedly won the 2019 Australian federal election on 18 May 2019, meaning Morrison would continue as Prime ...
".
Second term of government 2019–2022
Economy
In its second term of office, the Morrison government initially continued the Coalition's program of tax cuts and Budget deficit reduction, however the arrival of theCOVID-19 pandemic in Australia
The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 January ...
from early 2020 led to a dramatic increase in government expenditure and a brief recession by September 2020. The second Frydenberg Budget was delayed until October 2020, with the global economy facing its greatest crisis since the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Two years into the pandemic, the economy was recovering strongly. By December 2021, the economy was 3.4 per cent bigger than it had been before the commencement of the pandemic, and unemployment was at 4.2%, which was lower than it had been prior to the pandemic. During the period, the Morrison government concluded free trade agreements with Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
. These followed on from the Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
, South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
free trade agreements negotiated by the Coalition during the term of the Abbott government.
Income tax cuts
The government's income tax cut election commitments were legislated in the form of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Relief So Working Australians Keep More Of Their Money) Bill 2019. In total the legislation provided $158 billion in income tax cuts. Despite opposing Stage 3 of the legislation (set to come into effect after 2022) which flattened the tax rate to 30% for all workers earning between $45,000 and $200,000, the Labor Party voted in favour and only the Greens voted against the bill.2020 Coronavirus recession
On 2 September 2020, Australia was declared to be officially in a recession as GDP fell 7 per cent in June, the first time since the early 1990s. However, by December 2020 Australia was out of the recession after recording a GDP growth rate of 3.3% in the September quarter. As part of the Coronavirus-recession, Frydenberg attempted to wind back Rudd-era reforms to responsible lending obligations.Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade
New Zealand
The Morrison government continued the Australian policy of deporting non-citizens who had committed crimes under Section 501 of theMigration Act 1958
The ''Migration Act 1958'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and pr ...
, which was enacted by the Abbott government in December 2014. New Zealanders residing in Australia were particularly affected by the policy; with 1,300 having been repatriated to New Zealand by July 2018. Due to the close bilateral relations
Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. Wh ...
between the two countries, New Zealanders in Australia enjoy special work and residency rights. In response to 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 ...
Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician who has been serving as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the member of ...
's criticism that the deportation policy was having a "corrosive" effect on bilateral relations, Morrison defended the policy on law and order grounds.
In February 2021, Morrison defended his government's decision to revoke the citizenship of dual Australian–New Zealand citizen Suhayra Aden
Suhayra Aden (born 1995) is a New Zealand woman who travelled to Syria in 2014. It is alleged that while in Syria she joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) where she married two Swedish fighters and had three children. In Febr ...
, who had become an ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
bride
A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is newlywed.
When marrying, the bride's future spouse, (if male) is usually referred to as the '' bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, bri ...
. Ardern had criticised the decision, accusing Australia of abandoning its citizens. Following a phone conversation, the two Prime Ministers agreed to work together to resolve Aden's situation. In August 2021, Aden and her children were repatriated to New Zealand.
Despite disagreements on immigration issues, Australia and New Zealand have collaborated on other international issues. In December 2020,
Wellington sided with Canberra during a dispute with China over a controversial social media post by Chinese Foreign Ministry
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China () is the first-ranked executive department of the State Council of the Chinese government, responsible for the foreign relations of the People's Republic of China. It is led ...
spokesperson Zhao Lijian accusing Australia of committing war crimes in Afghanistan in response to the Brereton Report
The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report, commonly known as the Brereton Report (after the investigation head), is a report into war crimes allegedly committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during ...
. In late May 2021, Morrison and Ardern issued a joint statement in Queenstown affirming bilateral cooperation on the issues of COVID-19, bilateral relations, security issues in the Indo-Pacific such as the South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Ph ...
dispute, and human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In March 2022, Wellington also supported Canberra's concerns about a planned security pact between China and the Solomon Islands.
In late March 2022, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and New Zealand Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announced that Australia had accepted a longstanding New Zealand offer to accept 150 refugees a year from the Nauru Regional Processing Centre or asylum seekers temporarily in Australia for "processing." While Morrison's Labor predecessor Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
and her New Zealand counterpart John Key
Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to 2016. After resigning from bo ...
had initially reached the refugee resettlement deal in 2012, subsequent Liberal governments had reneged on New Zealand's offer due to concerns that it would encourage more asylum seekers to use New Zealand as a backdoor for immigrating to Australia.
Brereton Report
TheBrereton Report
The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report, commonly known as the Brereton Report (after the investigation head), is a report into war crimes allegedly committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during ...
into war crimes allegedly committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during the War in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016 delivered its final report on 6 November 2020. The redacted version was released publicly on 19 November 2020. The report found evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners by (or at the instruction of) members of the Australian special forces, which were subsequently covered up by ADF personnel. The Morrison government established a new Office of the Special Investigator to investigate further criminal conduct and recommend prosecution of individuals involved. In December 2020, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton appointed former Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Mark Weinberg as the Special Investigator. The Department of Defence released a plan to respond to the findings of the Brereton Report on 30 July 2021.
Evacuation of Afghanistan
During the2021 evacuation of Afghanistan
Large-scale evacuations of foreign citizens and some vulnerable Afghan citizens took place amid the withdrawal of US and NATO forces during the final days of the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan in 2021. After the ...
in August 2021, the Morrison government deployed 250 Australian soldiers and three Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
aircraft to aid in evacuations. Morrison, Defence Minister Dutton and Foreign Minister Payne also called on the Taliban to "cease all violence against civilians and adhere to international humanitarian law and the human rights all Afghans are entitled to expect, in particular women and girls".
By 24 August, Morrison confirmed that Australian and New Zealand forces had evacuated more than 650 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport
, nativename-r =
, image = Flightline at Kabul International Airport.jpeg
, caption = The flightline at Kabul International Airport in January 2012
, IATA = KBL
, ICAO = OAKB
, ...
in five flights. In addition, Australian forces also assisted with the evacuation of six Fijian United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
workers.
The Quad
The Morrison government embraced the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the Australia, India, Japan and the United States as a key pillar of itsIndo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth.
In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...
strategy. On 24 September 2021, US President Joe Biden hosted the first in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit with Prime Minister Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Suga in Washington. The leaders announced further initiatives on COVID-19 vaccines, technology and climate change, and launched Quad cooperation on clean energy supply chains, infrastructure, cyber, outer space, and cultivating next-generation STEM talent. The group is also widely perceived as a democratic counterbalance to the rise of authoritarian China. Outlining his vision for the organisation, Morrison said ahead of the meeting: "We are liberal democracies, that believe in a world order than favours freedom and we believe in a free and open Indo-Pacific. Because we know that's what delivers a strong, stable and prosperous region. The Quad is about demonstrating how democracies like ours... can get things done."
AUKUS
In September 2021 ahead of the Quad Leaders meeting in Washington, Morrison announced theAUKUS
AUKUS (, ) is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered ...
security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States
in a joint virtual press conference with US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
. As part of the pact, the United States and Britain will share defence technologies with Australia, including nuclear submarine technology for the first time. The agreement formed the most significant security arrangement between the three nations since World War Two, and came in the context of rapidly expanding naval and military spending by Communist China. As part of the deal, Australia scrapped a $90 billion submarine contract with a French State owned Naval company signed in 2016. French President Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...
reacted angrily to the announcement, publicly accused Morrison of lying, and recalled France's ambassadors to Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and the United States, as well as Malaysia and Indonesia. Macron's accusation was later said to have caused an avalanche of people disparaging Morrison's character, thought to have been a factor in the 2022 election loss.
Australia–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement
In December 2021, the Morrison government formally signed theAustralia–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement
The Australia–United Kingdom free trade agreement was signed 17 December 2021. The broad terms of the agreement had been agreed six months earlier, following almost a year of negotiations. It was the first trade agreement signed by Britain sinc ...
. The deal reduced restrictions on Australians to live and work in Britain, and will eliminate or phase out tariffs on a large range of products, including lamb, beef, sugar and dairy. The agreement was the first reached by Britain since its departure from the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
, which had created barriers to trade between the two nations. The Government called it "the most comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement that Australia has concluded, other than with New Zealand..."
Counter-terrorism
The ''Counter-Terrorism (Temporary Exclusion Orders) Act 2019'' and related legislation passed the parliament on 25 July 2019. The legislation gives theMinister for Home Affairs
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...
the power to issue an order barring an Australian citizen over the age of 14 from being able to enter Australian sovereign territory. A ''Temporary Exclusion Order'' can only be issued when the Minister or ASIO
''Asio'' is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in the family Strigidae. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the short-eared owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North and ...
(Australia's foreign intelligence agency) reasonably suspects that the person is likely to commit or enable an act of terrorism in Australia, and can last for a maximum of two years. All Temporary Exclusion Orders must be submitted for review to a reviewing authority (an Attorney-General-appointment former Justice), and can be revoked by the reviewing authority for any one of nine reasons. The government controversially rejected the amendments suggested by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) is a joint committee of the Parliament of Australia which oversees Australia's primary agencies of the Australian Intelligence Community: Australian Security Intelligence Organi ...
, which were supported by the opposition parties.
Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Morrison government denounced the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
The territory of present-day Ukraine has been invaded or occupied a number of times throughout its history.
List
See also
*List of invasions
* List of wars involving Ukraine
References
{{Europe topic, List of wars involving, title=List ...
by the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
. Morrison told the nation on February 24 that the Russian government had launched a "brutal" and "unprovoked" invasion of Ukraine, and announced the imposition of sanctions on Russian interests. The Abbott government had previously taken a strong stance against Putin during the Russia's invasion of Crimea and incursions into Eastern Ukraine, as well as the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2022 invasion, Australia offered medical supplies, financial support and non-lethal military equipment to assist Ukraine. Morrison criticised China for not condemning the invasion, and accused the Chinese government of "throwing a lifeline" to Putin by lifting restrictions on trade with Russia.
In the weeks following the invasion, Australia committed $116 million in military aid to support the Ukrainian war effort. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...
addressed the Australian Parliament on 31 March. Morrison called Zelensky a "Lion of Democracy" and told him ahead of his Parliamentary address: "Yes, you have our prayers, but you also have our weapons ndour military aid. We stand with you, Mr President, and we do not stand with the war criminal of Moscow." Zelensky thanked Australia for its support, and requested Australian-designed Bushmaster armoured vehicles be sent to Ukraine. Morrison accepted the request.
Solomon Islands
In response to the 2021 Solomon Islands unrest, the Morrison government dispatched personnel from theAustralian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. ...
and Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Fo ...
. This was done at the request of 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 ...
Manasseh Sogavare
Manasseh Damukana Sogavare (born 17 January 1955) is the sixth and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, serving since 24 April 2019. He previously held the office in 2000–2001, 2006—2007 and 2014–2017; in all he has served over ni ...
, who invoked the Australia-Solomon Islands Bilateral Security Treaty
The Australia-Solomon Islands Bilateral Security Treaty (full title: Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of Solomon Islands Concerning the Basis for Deployment of Police, Armed Forces, and other Personnel to Solomon I ...
. The Morrison government stated that this deployment was to support the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force's efforts to main order and protect vital infrastructure in the island nation.
In late March 2022, Foreign Minister 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 Defence 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 ...
expressed opposition to a draft security pact between China and the Solomon Islands that would allow Beijing to deploy military forces in the country and establish a military base. In response to Canberra's criticism, Sogavare defended the security pact with China, criticising the leaking of the document and objecting to the Australian media's coverage of the security pact. In addition, the Chinese government defended the bilateral pact and rejected Australian criticism that Beijing was coercing the Solomon Islands.
India Free Trade Agreement
Australia and India launched negotiations for the Australia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (AI-CECA) in May 2011. Negotiations were suspended in 2015, but were revived in 2020 by Prime Ministers Morrison andNarendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
. On 2 April, 2022, An interim agreement was signed by Trade Minister Dan Tehan
Daniel Thomas Tehan (; born 27 January 1968) is an Australian politician who was the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment in the Morrison Government from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Liberal Party and previously served as Minist ...
and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal. "India and Australia are natural partners. Like two brothers, both nations supported each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our relationship rests on the pillars of trust and reliability", Minister Goyal said.
Infrastructure
In April 2014, the Abbott government announced approval for the Western Sydney Airport
Western Sydney International Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, also known as Western Sydney Airport or Badgerys Creek Airport, is a new international airport currently under construction within the suburb of Badgerys Creek, New South Wales, Australia. ...
, a second airport for the city at Badgerys Creek, west of Sydney's CBD. In November 2021, Prime Minister Morrison said the Coalition government had invested over $14 billion to the project, creating 11,000 jobs. With terminal construction commencing, Morrison said the project was already 25 per cent complete "as a result of a great partnership, a partnership between the federal Liberals and Nationals and the state Liberals and Nationals working closely to secure Australia’s economic future and to secure the success of Western Sydney."
In 2017, the Turnbull government announced plans for Snowy 2.0
The Snowy Mountains Scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; nine power stations; two pumping stations; and of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that ...
, a $2bn construction project to increase the capacity of Snowy Hydro by 50% through 'pumped hydro' technology. Following extensive environmental and feasibility study, the Morrison government announced Federal approval for implementation of the project in June 2020. Unveiling a tunnel boring machine for Snowy 2.0 in December 2021, Morrison said: "Snowy 2.0 is building on the proud legacy of the first Snowy scheme, using local ingenuity to deliver landmark new infrastructure that will benefit Australia and the national electricity market for decades to come."
Indigenous Affairs
The Morrison government's second term commenced with the historic appointment of Ken Wyatt
Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party. He is the first Indigenous Australian e ...
as Minister for Indigenous Australians
The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 196 ...
in the Second Morrison Ministry. Wyatt became the first Aboriginal person to sit in Cabinet and hold the indigenous affairs portfolio.
On the eve of Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...
, 2022, the Morrison government announced that it had transferred the Aboriginal flag's copyright to the Commonwealth. Prime Minister Morrison said the flag had been "freed" for all Australians to use without asking for permission or the need to pay someone. Copyright was originally held by the original designer Harold Thomas, however non-Indigenous company WAM Clothing had bought exclusive rights to the flag in November 2018.
Religious freedoms
The dispute between professional rugby player Israel Folau and Rugby Australia was a major story during the federal election campaign. In the previous parliament, the two major parties had been unable to agree on legislation which would have removed the right of religious schools to expelLGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
students and sack homosexual teachers. Amidst intense pressure from conservative MPs, the government in August 2019 released a draft bill focusing on religious freedom
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...
. The draft legislation included provisions preventing employers from limiting the religious expression of workers in their private capacity (unless the business can prove it is a "reasonable" limitation and necessary to avoid unjustifiable financial hardship) and explicitly overrides a Tasmanian anti-discrimination law, which prohibits conduct which "offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules" based on protected grounds including gender, race, age, sexual orientation, disability and relationship status. The government had promised to introduce the bill to the parliament before the end of 2019 but objections from conservative religious groups and LGBTIQ
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisex ...
equality advocates forced the government to delay and re-draft the bill. In March 2020 the government dropped draft legislation to protect gay students and teachers from being expelled or sacked from religious schools. In November 2021 the Cabinet signed off on a revised religious freedoms bill, that included a "statements of belief" protection, meaning such statements could not be considered discriminatory so long as they don't threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify a person or would be considered malicious to a "reasonable person". The statement of beliefs clause would override any countervailing state or territory laws. The bill retained a clause that allows faith-based institutions, such as religious schools and hospitals, to positively discriminate against people who do not share or practice their faith. These institutions would be required to have a publicly available policy that clearly explained how those religious views would be enforced.
The so-called "Folau clause", which would have protected someone from being sacked for expressing any religious belief, was dropped. Morrison introduced the ''Religious Discrimination Bill 2021'' to the House of Representatives on 25 November 2021.
In early February, Morrison confirmed that he would seek support from the Liberal Party to amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1984
The ''Sex Discrimination Act 1984'' is an Act of the Parliament of Australia which prohibits discrimination on the basis of mainly sexism, homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, but also sex, marital or relationship status, actual or potential ...
to scrap a clause allowing religious schools to discriminate against same-sex and gender diverse students. His announcement came in response to Citipointe Christian College
Citipointe Christian College, previously known as Christian Outreach College Brisbane (COCB), is a K-12 Christian independent day school located in Carindale, Queensland, Australia. It is allied to the Evangelical founding church of the Christi ...
's unsuccessful attempt to get families to sign an anti-gay and anti-trans enrolment contract. Morrison had earlier introduced religious discrimination legislation into the Australian Parliament protecting certain expressions of religious expression and overrode state laws limiting when religious schools can give preferentially employment to staff of the same faith. Morrison's plan to amend the Sex Discrimination Act drew opposition from the Australian Christian Lobby and Christian Schools Australia
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, which threatened to withdraw their support for Morrison's religious discrimination legislation. The national LGBT advocation organisation Equality Australia
Anna Shelley Brown (born 1979) is a lawyer and advocate, particularly in the area of LGBTIQ rights. After working for the Human Rights Law Centre for around seven years, in December 2018 she was appointed chief executive of new LGBTI advocacy o ...
welcomed Morrison's commitment to amend the Sex Discrimination Act but called for the proposed religious discrimination legislation to be scrapped.
Following an all-night marathon sitting, the government's Religious Discrimination Bill 2022
Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
passed its third reading in the House of Representatives, despite five Liberal MPs voting with the Labor Party to pass amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act banning religious schools from discriminating against students on gender and sexuality grounds following a failed attempt by the government to defeat its own legislation. This amended legislation was referred to the Senate, where the government chose to remove the bill from consideration until after the 2022 election.
Electoral Reforms
In Late 2021 the government had plans for aVoter ID Law
A voter identification law is a law that requires a person to show some form of identification in order to vote. In some jurisdictions requiring photo IDs, voters who do not have photo ID often must have their identity verified by someone else ...
, the electoral committee had recommended it after the 2013, 2016 and 2019 elections. Under the proposed voter integrity bill, a voter unable to produce ID can still vote if their identity can be verified by another voter, or by casting a declaration vote, which requires further details such as date of birth and a signature. One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...
, has claimed credit for the Coalition's voter integrity bill, saying she made voter identification a condition for her support. The Labor party and the Greens were opposed to the Voter ID bill, forcing the government to approach the remaining crossbench senators – Griff Stirling, Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie – to try and pass the bill. After Senator Patrick came out against the Bill, calling it "a solution looking for a problem" and Senator Lambie announced her intention to vote against the bill siting more time was required to consider the bill, the government announced that they would defer the issue until after the election.
Also The government had In August 2021, the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill 2021 legislation which passed. The bill that made the rules surrounding the registration of political parties stricter. The membership requirements for a party was increased from 500 to 1500, and parties could not have names that were too similar to political parties registered before them. The tightening of party registration rules was reportedly due to an increase of parties on the Senate ballot, which resulted in the requirement of magnifying sheets for some voters to read the ballot, and a perception that voters would be misled by names of some minor parties.
Industrial relations
The government introduced legislation that would tighten the rules around the behaviours of unions and their officials. The legislation, named the ''Ensuring Integrity Bill
The Ensuring Integrity Bill is the name given to three bills introduced into the Parliament of Australia:
*''Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2017'', a bill first introduced by the Turnbull government i ...
'', would allow automatic disqualifications of "registered organisations" and grant the Federal Court the power to prevent officials from holding office in certain circumstances and broaden the court's power to order remedial action with respect to union disputes and governance. Trade union groups, Labor and the Greens opposed the bill, saying it was "contrary to international law and Australia’s commitments" and "hostile to the interests of working people". Industry groups and the Business Council of Australia argued the bill would "raise standards of conduct in the system" and would enforce penalties against "recalcitrant organisations".
The legislation passed the House of Representatives where the government had a majority, though failed to pass the Senate in late November 2019, after the third reading was deadlocked at 34-34 votes. The votes of crossbench Senators Jacqui Lambie
Jacquiline Louise Lambie (born 26 February 1971) is an Australian politician who is the leader and founder of the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN). She is a Senator for Tasmania since 2019, and was previously a Senator from 2014 to 2017.
Lambie, an ...
and Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...
were crucial to the outcome, with the government having brought the legislation to a vote under the impression Hanson and her One Nation party colleague would support the bill. The government responded by refusing to rule out the possibility of bringing back the legislation at a later date if it felt it could command newfound support in the Senate.
2019-20 Bushfires
The2019–20 Australian bushfire season
The 201920 Australian bushfire season (Black Summer), was a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, is considered a megafire. The Australian National ...
followed a long drought and witnessed one of the most prolonged and severe bushfire emergencies in Australian history. Fires commenced in Queensland and New South Wales in September 2019.Australia's 2019-20 bushfire season''The Canberra Times''; 10 January 2020 While touring bushfire hit communities in Queensland on 13 September, Morrison announced that people affected by the fires would be eligible for additional financial assistance of up to 13 weeks of support payments equivalent to the maximum rate of the Newstart Allowance. By November, fires had ignited in all states, and the severity of the fires worsened through December. On 11 December the Morrison government committed an $11 million grant to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC), which coordinates the air fleet of federal, state and territory governments. On 4 January, the Prime Minister confirmed that the grant would become a permanent annual increase, and committed $20m to lease four extra large air tankers to combat the fires. On Christmas Eve 2019 the government granted public service volunteer firefighters an extra four weeks paid leave, and committed up to $6000 for volunteers from the private sector on 26 December. The government also announced on 26 December an additional deployment of
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Fo ...
(ADF) assistance, with specialist defence personnel being sent to advise NSW fire incident controllers at the 14 control centres around the state, to free up ADF resources such as bulldozers, bulk water carriers and troops for firefighting use. The fresh deployment joined ADF personnel already providing helicopter search and rescue, transport, accommodation, meals and refuelling to the firefighting effort. On 4 January the government announced the call up of an additional 3000 Army reservists to help with bushfire recovery efforts, along with the opening of defence force bases for emergency short-term accommodation, and the deployment of defence aircraft to assist in firefighting and HMAS Adelaide
Three ships of the Royal Australian Navy have been named HMAS ''Adelaide'', after Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia:
* was a Town-class light cruiser commissioned in 1922 and decommissioned in 1946
* was an ''Adelaide''-class frigat ...
, to sit off the coast should it be required to help with evacuations. On 9 January Morrison committed $2 billion to a national bushfire recovery fund.
The extent of the bushfires led to controversy over the federal response to the fires and its policies on reducing or adapting to climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, after ministers initially downplayed the severity of the crisis. On 20 December Morrison cut short a family holiday to Hawaii after four days, amid an outcry that he had left the country during a crisis.
Sports rorts scandal
The "sports rorts" affair led to the resignation ofBridget McKenzie
Bridget McKenzie (born 27 December 1969) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the National Party and has been a Senator for Victoria since 2011. She has held ministerial office in the Turnbull and Morrison governments, also serving ...
from the cabinet. The subsequent election of a new deputy leader of the National Party turned into the 2020 National Party of Australia leadership spill when Barnaby Joyce
Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
unsuccessfully challenged for the leadership. McKenzie was reappointed to the cabinet 17 months later.
A report by Phil Gaetjens, the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Morrison's former chief-of-staff, found that the allocation of grants was not politically motivated, but that McKenzie had breached ministerial standards by allocating a grant to a gun club which she was a member of. The Gaetjens report was not released, with Senate leader Matthias Cormann claiming public interest immunity. Morrison maintained at this time that the grants program was not politically motivated, and that all projects that were funded were eligible, disputing the Auditor-General's report, which found that 43% of projects funded were ineligible, and that the grants program disproportionately favoured marginal and target seats. It was later found that the offices of Bridget McKenzie and Scott Morrison exchanged 136 emails concerning the sports grants, and McKenzie breached caretaker convention to make changes to the list of projects to be funded after the election was called, in at least one instance at the direction of the Prime Minister's Office. Morrison denies involvement.
Coronavirus
The Morrison government announced an economic stimulus package to combat the effects of coronavirus on the economy. On 12 March 2020 the government announced a billion stimulus package, the first since the 2008 GFC. The package consists of multiple parts, a one-off A$750 payment to around 6.5 million welfare recipients as early as 31 March 2020, small business assistance with 700,000 grants up to $25,000 and a 50% wage subsidy for 120,000 apprenticies or trainees for up to 9 months, $1 billion to support economically impacted sectors, regions and communities, and $700 million to increase tax write off and $3.2 billion to support short-term small and medium-sized business investment. On 30 March theAustralian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...
announced a $130 billion "JobKeeper" wage subsidy program, Scott Morrison later admitted there was a '$60 billion
'' error in the calculation. The JobKeeper program would pay employers up to $1500 a fortnight per full-time, part-time or casual employee that has worked for that business for over a year. For a business to be eligible, they must have lost 30% of turnover after 1 March of annual revenue up to and including $1 billion. For businesses with a revenue of over $1 billion, turnover must have decreased by 50%. Businesses are then required by law to pay the subsidy to their staff, in lieu of their usual wages. This response came after the enormous job losses seen just a week prior when an estimated 1 million Australians lost their jobs. This massive loss in jobs caused the myGov website to crash and lines out of
Centrelink
The Centrelink Master Program, or more commonly known as Centrelink, is a Services Australia master program of the Australian Government. It delivers a range of government payments and services for retirees, the Unemployment, unemployed, f ...
offices to run hundreds of metres long. The program was backdated to 1 March, to aim at reemploying the many people who had just lost their jobs in the weeks before. Businesses would receive the JobKeeper subsidy for 6 months.
The announcement of the JobKeeper wage subsidy program is the largest measure announced by the Australian Government in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifi ...
. In the first hour of the scheme, over 8,000 businesses registered to receive the payments. The JobKeeper wage subsidy program is one of the largest economic packages ever implemented in the history of Australia.
In September 2020 the Australian Government passed changes to "JobKeeper" wage subsidy program. From 28 September, the payment will fall to $1,200 a fortnight, followed by a further drop at the beginning of January 2021 to $1,000. Morrison promised in September 2020 that Australians stranded overseas would be “home by Christmas“, without consulting the rest of government.
Parliamentary workplace culture & sexual assault allegations
During the term of the Morrison government, allegations of misconduct by Parliamentary members and staffers of the government, Opposition and cross benchers became a matter of intense scrutiny, as part of wider societal debate on the topic of the eradication of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. These events led to widespread debate and demonstrations against mistreatment of women in Parliamentary workplace culture, as well as to debates about media coverage and due process.Porter v Shorten: will Labor risk mutually assured destruction?www.smh.com.au; Mar 12, 2021Media Female Labor staffers share details of workplace sexual harassment and abuse
www.theguardian.com; 14 Mar, 2021 ; Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces On 5 March 2021, the Morrison government established the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces, with support from the Opposition and crossbench. The review was conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission and led by the Sex Discrimination Commission. The Review's Terms of Reference asked for recommendations to ensure that Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces were safe and respectful, reflecting best practice in the prevention and handling of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. The report found that men in parliament were "more likely to perpetrate sexual harassment, while women were more likely to bully". On 8 February, 2022, the Parliament issued a Statement of Acknowledgement of an "unacceptable history of workplace bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault in Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces" which committed the Parliament to "continuing to build safe and respectful workplaces." ; Rape allegations Two separate historical rape allegations became public in February 2021, one regarding the alleged conduct of the Morrison government's Attorney General
Christian Porter
Charles Christian Porter (born 11 July 1970) is an Australian former politician and lawyer who served as the 37th Attorney-General of Australia from 2017 to 2021 in the Turnbull government and the subsequent Morrison government. He was a Me ...
when he was a child, and one regarding the alleged rape of a female Liberal staffer by a male staffer in the office of the Defence Minister Linda Reynolds
Linda Karen Reynolds (born 16 May 1965) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Liberal Party and has served as a Senator for Western Australia since 2014. She held senior ministerial office as a cabinet minister in the Morrison g ...
after hours, in the lead up to the 2019 election campaign. The allegations followed a similar allegation against the former Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...
, and emerged as female Labor staffers were also coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment and abuse by some male Labor colleagues in the workplace.
Claims of "workplace harassment
Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.
Recently, matters of workplace harassment have gained interest among practitioners and researchers as it is becoming one of the ...
", "systemic misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practice ...
" and "victim blaming
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as ...
" in Parliament were widely aired.
On 15 February 2021, Brittany Higgins
In February and March 2021, a number of allegations involving rape and other sexual misconduct against women involving the Australian Parliament and federal politicians were raised, causing controversy especially for the federal Liberal-Nationa ...
, a former staffer in the office of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds
Linda Karen Reynolds (born 16 May 1965) is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Liberal Party and has served as a Senator for Western Australia since 2014. She held senior ministerial office as a cabinet minister in the Morrison g ...
came forward in the media with an allegation that, in March 2019, she had been raped by a male staffer in the office of the Defence Minister after being taken their after hours following a heavy drinking session. Higgins took the matter to police on 24 February, and investigations are ongoing. Higgins said the support offered by her Liberal bosses had been inadequate after the alleged rape.
After the ABC had announced that a "cabinet minister" was the subject of rape allegations, Attorney-General Christian Porter
Charles Christian Porter (born 11 July 1970) is an Australian former politician and lawyer who served as the 37th Attorney-General of Australia from 2017 to 2021 in the Turnbull government and the subsequent Morrison government. He was a Me ...
came forward on 3 March 2021, to confirm that he had been the subject of the allegation that in 1988, when he was a 17-year-old boy, he had raped a 16-year-old girl. He denied the allegation. The woman who had made the allegation committed suicide in June 2020. NSW police pronounced the matter closed on the basis of "insufficient admissible evidence to proceed". Porter is currently suing the ABC for defamation, and the matter remains ongoing. The ABC campaigned strongly for the removal of the Attorney General. ABC political correspondent Laura Tingle argued in an 3 March editorial for the ''7:30'' program that it did not matter if he been found guilty of a crime beyond reasonable doubt, but that "perception" was sufficient for his removal. She dismissed comparisons made by Porter to Labor leader Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...
.
An Essential poll
Essential Media Communications (EMC), also known as EMC Media Communications or Essential Media, Essential Research, or simply Essential, is an Australian public relations and market research company known for its opinion polls, which are often ...
found that 65% of respondents (including 76% of Labor supporters, 51% of Coalition supporters and 88% of Greens supporters) said that the government was more interested in protecting itself than women.
As well as the 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 ...
and Greens parties, the government faced criticism from within its own party. Former Prime Minister 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 had been made aware of the allegations against Porter in 2019, criticised him for taking too long to come forward. Former 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 ...
, however, defended Morrison's decision not to open an independent inquiry into Porter's conduct.
Australian of the Year
The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territ ...
and sexual assault survivor advocate Grace Tame
Grace Tame (born 28 December 1994) is an Australian activist and advocate for survivors of sexual assault. Tame was named 2021 Australian of the Year on 25 January 2021.
Early life, family and education
Grace Tame was born in Hobart in about ...
also criticised Morrison's rhetoric. Tame lambasted at Morrison at her NPC address, criticising Morrison's use of the “as a father” phrase, as well as saying "It shouldn't take having children to have a conscience."
; Prima facie case on Christian Porter
In October 2021, the Morrison government successfully voted against sending government MP Christian Porter
Charles Christian Porter (born 11 July 1970) is an Australian former politician and lawyer who served as the 37th Attorney-General of Australia from 2017 to 2021 in the Turnbull government and the subsequent Morrison government. He was a Me ...
to the privileges committee regarding his blind trust. This vote was significant because the Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** In ...
Tony Smith had determined there was a Prima facie
''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning ''at first sight'' or ''based on first impression''. The literal translation would be 'at first face' or 'at first appearance', from the feminine forms of ''primus'' ('first') and ''facies'' (' ...
case and in voting down the motion, the Morrison government became the first government to refuse a referral from the Speaker since Federation. The move from the government attracted significant criticism in the media.
Additionally, the Leader of the House 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 ...
did not allow crossbench MPs remoting into Parliament (due to COVID) to vote on the motion even though the Senate allows voting in such a fashion. If MPs were permitted to vote remotely the vote likely would have ended in a tie, giving the Speaker the deciding vote.
; Senator Kimberley Kitching
In March 2022, Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching
Kimberley Jane Elizabeth Kitching (16 February 1970 – 10 March 2022) was an Australian politician, lawyer, and trade unionist. A member of the Labor Party, she was a Senator for Victoria from October 2016 until her death.
Early life
Kitchin ...
died of a heart attack, aged 52. Journalists revealed that in the lead up to her death she had been seeking assistance for alleged bullying by senior Labor Senators Penny Wong
Penelope Ying-Yen Wong (born 5 November 1968) is an Australian politician who has been Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate in the Albanese Government since 2022. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), ...
, Kristina Keneally
Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who was a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 until April 2022, when she resigned to unsuccessfully contest the House of Repre ...
and Katy Gallagher
Katherine Ruth Gallagher (born 18 March 1970) is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Albanese Gover ...
. At the Senator's funeral, her husband said a "cantankerous cabal" had targeted the late Senator. Morrison called for Labor to conduct an investigation. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
refused to open an investigation, citing "respect" for Kitching as the reason.
Car park rorts affair
The Morrison government was accused of ‘pork-barrelling’ over a $660 million commuter car park program that saw a large number of promised car parks targeted at Liberal Party held seats considered at risk in the 2019 election. The Australian National Audit Office ‘found that the federal government cash splash was ‘not administered appropriately and that there was no consultation with state governments and councils about where the money was needed.' It further found that 'there is little evidence to demonstrate that the selection of commuter car park projects was based on assessed merit against the investment principles or achievement of the policy objective.' This led to claims that the government's commuter car park program was an example of 'pork-barelling', which was amplified after a number of the proposed car parks were found to be unsuitable and cancelled.Internal criticism
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was subject to internal criticism when texts from his Coalition colleagues were leaked in January and February 2022. In January 2022, texts from a senior cabinet minister in the Morrison government, sent to former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian were revealed, where the minister labelled the Prime Minister a “horrible, horrible person” and a “complete psycho”. This was soon followed by leaked texts sent from Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who in March 2021 labelled the Prime Minister “a hypocrite and a liar” in text messages. Joyce offered his resignation to the Prime Minister but the offer was declined. In 2022, New South Wales state MP Catherine Cusack accused Morrison of politicising the Lismore floods and not doing enough to assist flood relief. Sitting Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells accused Morrison of being “unfit for office", an "autocrat", and a "bully" with "no moral compass". She also suggested Scott Morrison "has used his so-called faith as a marketing advantage".Cabinet appointments
In August 2022, it was revealed that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had secretly been appointed to six ministerial roles: Treasurer, Health Minister, Minister for Industry, Science and Energy, Minister for Resources, Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Service. His colleagues say that they were unaware of his "secret appointments".2022 federal election
The 2022 federal election was called by Morrison on 10 April 2022, when he visited theGovernor-General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
advising the latter to prorogue Parliament and dissolve the House of Representatives. The Governor-General accepted Morrison's recommendations, as is the custom in Australia's Westminster system of government. The Parliament was then prorogued and the House of Representatives dissolved the next morning.
The election was held on 21 May 2022. As of 10:00PM AEST on election night, the Labor Party (led by Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
) was projected to form a government by ABC News, although it was not clear whether they would have a majority or a minority. Notable outcomes included the popularity of community independents in several inner-city seats, costing Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Leader Josh Frydenberg his seat; a particularly sizable swing from the Coalition to Labor in Western Australia; and notably strong support for the Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and t ...
in some inner-city Brisbane seats.
After the bulk of the votes had been counted and a Labor victory appeared inevitable, Morrison conceded the election, and then announced his intention to resign as the Liberal Party leader. The Coalition's loss was attributed to Morrison's unpopularity with voters and the popularity of centrist " teal independents" in certain inner-city electorates. Albanese, who also made history as the first Italian-Australian to secure the position of Prime Minister, was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia on 23 May 2022.
See also
* 2018 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spills *45th Parliament of Australia
The 45th Parliament of Australia was a meeting of the legislative branch of the Australian federal government, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. It met in Canberra from 30 August 2016 to 4 April 2019. ...
(first term of government)
* 46th Parliament of Australia
The 46th Parliament of Australia was a meeting of the legislative branch of the Australian federal government, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. The 2019 federal election gave the Coalition of th ...
(second term of government)
* 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election
The 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election was held on 4 July 2020 to elect the next Member of the Australian Parliament for the division of Eden-Monaro in the House of Representatives. The by-election was triggered following the resignation of incumbent ...
* 2020s in Australia political history
2020s in Australia political history refers to political history of Australia in the 2020s, presented in narrative format.
46th Parliament, 2019–2022
General history
At the 2019 election, in the 151-seat House of Representatives, the incum ...
References
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrison, Scott 2020s in Australian politics Governments of Australia Scott Morrison