Australia swears in Turnbull as 29th prime minister
Malcolm Turnbull has been sworn in as Australia’s new prime minister after outdoing his predecessor Tony Abbott in an unexpected Liberal Party vote.
Turnbull took the oath of office as Australia’s 29th prime minister at Government House in Canberra on Tuesday. He also became the country’s fourth premier since 2013.
Hours earlier, Abbott had slammed his surprise ouster by his own colleagues, which came in a party vote on Monday.
“Poll-driven panic has produced a revolving door prime ministership, which can’t be good for our country,” Abbott said, referring to the fate of former premiers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, who lost their jobs in similar votes.
Abbott started serving as prime minister in September 2013. He survived a motion to remove him from power in February. In recent months, he had been losing popularity in opinion polls to Turnbull, who is considered to be of less conservative political views.
Turnbull has also described his victory as an unexpected “turn of events.” A former communications minister, the 60-year-old was party leader for two years before his rival Abbott ousted him in 2009 by a single vote in a similar leadership ballot.
“There’s been a change of prime minister, but we are a very, very strong government, a very strong country with a great potential and we will realize that potential working very hard together,” Turnbull said.
The new premier enjoys the support of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, whom the party has re-elected as deputy leader. Turnbull is expected to reshuffle the cabinet later this week.
Shortly after being sworn in, he took his first Question Time parliamentary session, where he defended climate change policies. He also said the country had to hold a plebiscite on the issue of same-sex marriage.
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