Iran Press-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull survived a leadership challenge by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Tuesday, a government official said, which came after weeks of speculation and falling opinion poll ratings.
Turnbull won the vote for the leadership of the Liberal Party, the senior party in a government coalition, beating Dutton by 48 votes to 35, chief government whip Nola Marino told reporters.
Turnbull declared the leadership of the government open earlier on Tuesday amid a backbench uprising as opinion polls showed the government on course for a heavy election defeat in a ballot due next year reported Reuters .
Before the ballot, Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg had warned government colleagues that they would lose popularity if they dumped Turnbull.
Frydenberg said voters were tired of governments repeatedly changing their prime ministers. Ousting Turnbull would be a sixth leadership change in less than 11 years. The centre-left opposition Labor Party elected one leader, Keven Rudd, twice during a chaotic six years in power.
"There is a high transaction cost from changing leaders. Labor's seen that, we've seen that," Frydenberg told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "I believe that Malcolm Turnbull is the right person to lead us to the next election."
Turnbull made a major concession to his opponents within his party on Monday by abandoning plans to legislate to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The concession avoided the most conservative government lawmakers voting against the legislation in Parliament, openly undermining his authority.
But former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who was replaced by Turnbull in a ballot of government lawmakers in 2015, was not convinced that Turnbull had given up on reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent below 2005 levels through legislation.
"What we want to know is: Where are this prime minister's convictions?" Abbott told the ABC outside Parliament House on Monday night.
"It was a conversion of convenience this morning," Abbott added.
Damian Drum, a lawmaker in The Nationals' party, a junior coalition partner, called on Abbott to resign from Parliament instead of destabilizing the government.
"He vowed that he wouldn't be a wrecker," Drum told reporters of Abbott. "That's exactly what he's been -- a wrecker, and he needs to get out of the joint."
Frydenbeg said Cabinet ministers on Monday night expressed their support for Turnbull, including Dutton, who was a staunch ally of Abbott.
Deputy Liberal Party Leader Julie Bishop retained her position unopposed at Tuesday's ballot.
Australia has gone through an extraordinary period of political instability since Prime Minister John Howard lost power in 2007 after more than 11 years in office.
Turnbull would next month become Australia's longest serving prime minister since Howard, having held the office for three years and four days.
The government has trailed Labor in most opinion polls since the last election in 2016. Australians are due to hold a general election early next year.
Video from Reuters
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