Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

A Battle for the Soul of Conservatism Plays Out in Australia

"Scott Morrison, Australia’s Next Prime Minister, Pledges to ‘Heal Our Party’
[...]
Jill Sheppard, a lecturer in politics at the Australian National University in Canberra, the capital, said Mr. Morrison was among the most conservative
members of the Liberals’ moderate wing. “He has managed to straddle factions in the Liberal Party really nicely in the last couple of decades,” she said.
P - Other analysts said the fact that Mr. Morrison was regarded as a moderate only showed how dramatically conservative politics have shifted to the right in Australia.
P - “It’s just extraordinary that Scott Morrison is the moderate candidate,” said Susan Harris-Rimmer, a law professor at Griffith University. “He is an extremely conservative, law-and-order person.”"

Yep, union membership over years considerably down, as in the U.S.A. Jobs more casualized. Refugee conflict around the world has tapped more restive, sub-surface and energized open racists. Trump' presidency has contribute there too. Morrison opposed the equal marriage despite popular support .. https://www.christianpost.com/news/scott-morrison-australias-new-pm-is-an-evangelical-who-voted-against-gay-marriage-despite-opposition-226989/ , and backed backed Turnbull's gig business tax cut proposal, which does not have majority support either.

"Asked "dollar for dollar, what do you think is a better way for the government to increase economic growth and employment?" 64.6 per cent of respondents
opted for "funding health, education, and other public services" ahead of "cutting company tax", which attracted less than one in five voters or 15.3 per cent.
P - Even among Coalition supporters, more than half, 52 per cent, favoured more spending on health, eduction or other areas."
https://www.smh.com.au/money/tax/voters-doubtful-about-coalition-s-big-business-tax-cuts-poll-20180203-p4yzcl.html

Ruling-party rupture brings in a new prime minister and exposes long struggle over policy, personality


Australia’s Scott Morrison, chosen by the Liberal Party as its leader and the country’s new prime minister, said his priorities include dealing with a crippling drought,
keeping the economy on track and protecting national security. Photo: sam mooy/epa-efe/rex/shutterstoc/EPA/Shutterstock

By David Winning and David Crawshaw

Aug. 24, 2018 12:40 p.m. ET

SYDNEY — A battle for control over Australia’s ruling coalition, fueled by policy disputes and personal vendettas, ended with the prime minister’s ouster but failed to close the rift that threatens the Liberal Party, the country’s dominant conservative force.

Scott Morrison, a Christian who backed greater rights for religious groups and once oversaw the offshore detention of asylum seekers, won a party vote on Friday .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/scott-morrison-to-be-australias-next-prime-minister-1535080332?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=5&mod=article_inline .. and will lead the government to an election due next year. But his thin margin of victory at 45-40 over a more conservative opponent, Peter Dutton, illustrated the continued tensions between party factions.

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VIDEO - Scott Morrison has become prime minister, succeeding Malcolm
Turnbull, who lost power in a Liberal Party leadership coup. Photo: Getty Images
--

The Liberal Party—Australia’s main center-right bloc—has been grappling with how far to steer to the right in response to the increasing pop ularity of populist fringe groups, a challenge also faced by mainstream political parties in the U.S. and Europe.

The party has long considered itself a “broad church,” accommodating classically liberal as well as more-conservative views. In a changing political landscape, long-simmering disagreements between those two schools of thought erupted this week.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led the party from 2015 until this week, had geared his coalition toward the center of Australian politics. He pursued pro-business changes such as company tax cuts alongside a socially liberal agenda. He enacted same-sex marriage after voters endorsed the change in a referendum and pushed to mandate emissions-reductions targets under the Paris agreement.

The latter proved the catalyst for his undoing. With his poll numbers sagging and the conservative base increasingly uneasy ahead of elections early next year, the party’s right wing mounted a challenge to remove Mr. Turnbull .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/malcolm-turnbull-poised-to-step-down-as-australias-leader-1535008085?mod=article_inline&mod=article_inline .

[Catalyst, or not, (with Tony Abbott
Australian PM Tony Abbott ousted by Malcolm Turnbull
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=116974731
festering on the backbench the challenge was going to happen whenever) Turnbull said simply was too left for the party.
Particularly on issues of great interest to religious people, as gay marriage. And too left on environmental issues.]

In doing so, the thinking went, they might shore up support from conservative voters who had been drifting toward the far right.

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[SLIDESHOW] - From Stability to Volatility: Australia’s Rocky Leadership Road
-

Challenging Mr. Turnbull was Mr. Dutton, a former policeman viewed as a hard-liner, known in part for his hawkish views on immigration and his boycott of a parliamentary apology to indigenous people for past injustices.

It didn’t work. Having unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Turnbull for the leadership earlier in the week, Mr. Dutton tried again on Friday, only to find himself running against Mr. Morrison, a more conventional conservative seen as a compromise candidate, after Mr. Turnbull stepped aside.

The public bout of political bloodletting gripped the country for days. Much of it was seen as driven by Tony Abbott, the hard-line former prime minister whom Mr. Turnbull ousted as Liberal leader in 2015. The two men have known each other for decades and have shared an enmity that has occasionally spilled into the open.

On Friday, Mr. Turnbull said that “disunity is death” in Australian politics and described Mr. Abbott as a wrecker who had undermined his administration.

Mr. Abbott said that having lost a prime minister, “we still have a government to save.” He didn’t congratulate Mr. Morrison on his elevation as leader in remarks to reporters.

In many ways, Australia is an unlikely staging post for political instability. The country is enjoying a 27-year economic growth streak, the longest without a recession in the developed world. Yet it has switched prime ministers six times in barely a decade, revealing wide dissatisfaction with its political leadership. No leader since 2007 has survived to contest a second national election.

Unlike the U.S.’s presidential system, Australians don’t directly choose their prime minister. They instead elect a party, whose lawmakers can pick their chief from their ranks and can replace a leader in office. The leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament is the prime minister.

Mr. Morrison on Friday signaled three immediate priorities: dealing with a crippling drought .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-crop-in-seven-years-drought-plagues-australias-farmers-1534248004?mod=article_inline&mod=article_inline .. along Australia’s east coast, keeping the economy on track, and protecting national security. A day earlier, as treasurer, he blocked the participation of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE .. https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-bans-chinas-huawei-from-5g-network-rollout-1534992631?mod=article_inline Corp . from involvement in the rollout of next-generation 5G telecommunications services in Australia.

The economic challenge is significant. Australia’s household debt has risen to 190% of income, ranking it among the highest in the developed world, according to the central bank. Diplomatic ties with China, which buys around a quarter of Australia’s exports, soured this year after Mr. Turnbull tightened counterespionage laws amid concerns that Beijing had interfered in the country’s politics.

Mr. Morrison faces a test next week when he forms his government and must decide whether to retain Mr. Dutton in the home-affairs portfolio. Mr. Morrison may also feel pressure to hand Mr. Abbott a senior role.

While Australian voters have typically punished leaders who seized power in party-room coups, they may be more forgiving of Mr. Morrison due to his loyalty: He only contested the top job once Mr. Turnbull had indicated he was stepping aside.

Write to David Winning at [e-mail]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-battle-for-the-soul-of-conservatism-plays-out-in-australia-1535128827

Somehow i sneaked past the paywall to snag that one. Later a second click didn't get by.

Dutton is in, but if Morrison doesn't leave Abbott on the backbench it will be a disappointment to people across the political spectrum. I'm
guessing Abbott isn't extra popular even in the party room, and hoping Morrison exhibits enough mettle to leave him on the backbench.

See also:

By Jingos, The Australian Values ‘Problem’ Resides in Our Homes, Not Our Hearts
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