Turnbull survives as Liberal leader

25 Nov 2009, 2:00 pm   -   Source: SBS staff and agencies
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Liberal MPs have voted to support Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the party in a secret ballot, by 48 votes to 35, ruling out a potential challenge to his position. 

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Liberal MPs have voted to support Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the party and the coalition, in a secret ballot, by 48 votes to 35, ruling out a potential challenge to his position. A special meeting of the party room was held on Wednesday afternoon, at which MPs opted not to move a spill motion against Mr Turnbull.

"The motion put forward to the chair that the position be declared vacant and that motion was lost," said party spokesman Alex Somylay, adding that Wilson Tuckey had moved the motion.

"Malcolm Turnbull leads the Liberal party with a very strong vote of confidence," he said.

Mr Turnbull reportedly thanked his supporters and called for unity in the wake of the vote, with Joe Hockey insisting the leader had been "humbled" by the challenge.

"Malcolm was very humbled at the end of it, but what it does demonstrate is that Malcolm is acting in the party's interest and in the nation's interest.

'Damage has been done' to party

"We do not have an emperor who imposes his view without contradiction, without question," he said, adding the party had always had a diversity of views.

Kevin Andrews, who had said he would run for the leadership if the party room came out against Mr Turnbull, did not challenge him.

Mr Andrews refused to say whether there would be another challenge in future, but said the vote showed that 35 members of the party would support him as leader.

"This sends a very clear message that the Liberal Party is deeply concerned about the way things have occurred," he said.

Mr Hockey - seen as a future leader of the party - said "damage has been done", but insisted that the vote was a "good result" for Mr Turnbull.

ETS 'deeply divisive' issue

He insisted Mr Turnbull had the "overwhelming" support of the party.

"The Liberal Party is going forward as a party and is going to be constructive in this parliament," he told reporters after the meeting.

"It's going to do the right thing on behalf of the Australian people."

The 48-35 result was "almost identical" to the ETS vote of Tuesday's joint coalition parties meeting.

Mr Hockey said the emissions trading issue had been an "incredibly difficult" issue for the coalition. "There are very strong views on both sides of the argument," he said.

The leadership debate followed Tuesday's marathon - and deeply divisive - meeting to decide whether the coalition should support Labor's emissions trading scheme.

'Maverick' Tuckey criticised

Mr Turnbull angered members of the party last night by declaring that they supported a deal with the government on an emissions trading scheme.

Many Liberals insist Mr Turnbull did not have the numbers to claim victory in the debate, with many defiantly voicing their opposition to the deal.

On Tuesday night, firebrand MP Wilson Tuckey, who moved the motion calling for a challenge to Mr Turnbull's leadership, had insisted he "would not last the night".

Backbencher Peter Lindsay was critical of Mr Tuckey's motion, but said the maverick had finally got "the needle" he deserved.

"Mr Tuckey's comments have been entirely unhelpful," he said, after exiting the party room. "We need to be attacking the Labor Party, not our leader."


 

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Your Comments

spill

m - from melbourne, 3 years ago

MT was correct to force a decision through his party - not to do so risked worse fallout. It's unfortunate that so many in his party dissagree with the science on the issue. Despite thier personal feelings these folks are after all eleted by the people to 'represent' the interests of people (not themselves). I hate to say it but it's a good negotiated outcome in the end - as an opposition party negotiating the best deal is thier job. I guess that means only 50% of his party are doing anything.

Leadership spill

oncewas - from bribie island, 3 years ago

By the way W Tuckey was wrong again!

Leadership spill

oncewas - from bribie island, 3 years ago

Now that there was no spill and the opposition is running around like headless chooks perhaps the political scene should change. We have 83 members who should stand down and save us a lot of money and then nominate for election next year. All losing parties could do this and the elected government could get on with business without the distraction of battling a go nowhere opposition. Think how much money could be diverted to better causes. Nobody would be any worse off except unemployment figure

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