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Liberal leadership crisis: MPs move to oust Malcolm Turnbull in late night second strike against PM

Fergus Hunter
Updated ,first published

The end of today's live coverage

By David Crowe

Peter Dutton has launched a second strike to topple Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a sudden move to force a vote on the leadership, as his allies urge a swift end to the turmoil at the top of the government.

The former home affairs minister sanctioned Liberal MPs to demand a fresh vote on the leadership, in a sign of his confidence in securing the support needed to win a ballot among on Thursday morning.

Mr Dutton’s supporters circulated a petition to force the meeting in a surprise move on Wednesday night, just as he faced doubts over whether his financial affairs made him ineligible to sit in Parliament.

Fairfax Media was told the petition had enough support to force a ballot to be held, arguing it would be untenable for Mr Turnbull to resist a call from a substantial group asking for a meeting even if they did not gain a majority.

The petition was passed from one MP to another on Wednesday evening, in a tactic similar to a move that forced Julia Gillard to call a ballot against Kevin Rudd in 2013.

Crossbenchers weigh in

By Eryk Bagshaw

“We can be up and running pretty quickly,” said Senator Stirling Griff.

Leaving Parliament on Wednesday his colleague Senator Rex Patrick joked he had ordered the Prime Minister’s car to pick him up in the morning because there might not be a PM to be driven.

“The real losers out of this are the public. New ministers can take six months just to get their feet settled under their ministerial desks,” he said.

“An unplanned change like this can stall governments. That’s bad for good governance. It’s also bad for the Coalition who will need a team on top of their game in the lead up to the election.“

Jane Prentice says the petition has nine signatures on it

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Jane Prentice, assistant minister for social services, says there is a petition and she has heard it has about nine signatures on it. 

"I haven't signed it, I haven't seen it," Prentice, a Turnbull supporter, says.

"I think people should stop thinking about themselves and think about the people of Australia." 

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Legal advice finds Dutton has a section 44 issue

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Legal advice, authored by prominent Melbourne silk Bret Walker SC for Labor, concludes that Dutton was likely "incapable of being chosen for the 45th Parliament and is not entitled to continue to sit in the 45th Parliament".

The movements come after Fairfax Media revealed the childcare company operated by Dutton's family trust had received more than $5.6 million in Commonwealth funding since 2014.

The Labor-commissioned document, obtained by Fairfax, was distributed to Christian Porter and Malcolm Turnbull earlier this afternoon after the Prime Minister said he had not read Dutton's legal advice.

The advice, requested by Labor national secretary Noah Carroll in April, reads: "The resolution of these issues, for the reasons that follow, leads us to the conclusion that that it is clearly arguable that Mr Dutton is not eligible to so sit in the 45th Parliament and potentially not eligible to have been chosen for the 45th Parliament. We are of the view that this is the preferable argument."

Read the full story here. 

How James McGrath jumped ship

By Michael Koziol

The night before Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott to seize the country's top job, he had dinner with a close group of plotters including his key numbers man, Queensland senator James McGrath.

A proud conservative with a fondness for "rum and coke" and Milo, Senator McGrath was an unlikely recruit to the Turnbull revolution. But he proved effective, and was quickly rewarded with a promotion to assistant minister to the Prime Minister.

At the time, Senator McGrath pledged to be a "mozzie in his [Mr Turnbull's] ear, so to speak, for the concerns of Queenslanders". But the mozzie failed to really latch on, according to observers.

Senator McGrath was "not available" for an interview on Wednesday. But colleagues say his relations with Mr Turnbull deteriorated long ago, during his early days as the PM's assistant minister.

"I thought he was there to keep an eye on Malcolm’s back and give Malcolm political advice," one MP said. But "something happened between them and he fell out of favour".

Senator McGrath soon began complaining to colleagues that the PM "didn't listen". Their consults went from frequent to virtually non-existent.

Read the full story here. 

Things are getting nasty

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James McGrath quits frontbench

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James McGrath, one of Malcolm Turnbull's key strategists in the 2015 spill, has resigned from the frontbench. 

McGrath backed Peter Dutton in yesterday's spill and offered his resignation the same day. Thus far, Turnbull had not accepted it. 

Now, McGrath says: "This evening I met with the Prime Minister to insist my resignation be accepted, which it was."

In his resignation letter to the PM, he argues: "The people who have for all their lives counted on us to look after them and their families are now questioning our commitment to them. Our people feel forgotten, ignored, and spoken down to. As a Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland, this is an intolerable situation."

He had been the assistant minister to the PM. He is now the third frontbencher – after Dutton himself and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells – to quit.

Advice from someone who's been there

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Russell Mahoney, a communications director for former prime minister Julia Gillard, has a bit of advice drawn from his first-hand experience with leadership spills. 

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Leadership ripples reach Nationals

By Eryk Bagshaw

Regardless of what happens in the Liberal Party room, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has ruled out a tilt at becoming deputy prime minister.

Michael McCormackBarnaby Joyce
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Molan says the Liberals have moved too far to the left

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Jim Molan, a vocal and conservative senator, says he is concerned about the Liberal Party's direction and that's why he has backed Peter Dutton. 

"There is a view that the Liberal Party has moved too far to the left over recent years – it is a view that I share. Whilst this government has achieved a great many things, the perception that we have moved too far to the left has resulted in many of our supporters leaving us for cross bench parties," Molan, a former major general in the Army, says.

"I believed that Peter Dutton was best placed to bring the party back to a genuine right of centre position. I still do."

But now, he says, he accepts the result  of the first spill "and will support the Prime Minister as we provide good government for each and every one of 25 million Australians".

Support him, presumably, until the next spill. At which point he will again support Dutton. 

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