Australia PM Malcolm Turnbull clings to power amid leadership crisis

Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, signalled he could resign on Friday following bitter infighting that has split the ruling Liberal party and left the nation facing yet another leadership change.

As the party’s brutal civil war continued and thirteen ministers resigned, Mr Turnbull, a former investment banker and self-made millionaire, said he would resign if a majority of Liberal MPs demanded another leadership vote.

On Thursday, Mr Trunbull's opponents were one signature away from securing the vote, which they hoped would take place at midday local time on Friday (3am GMT).

The new vote follows a challenge by Peter Dutton, a hardliner who lost in a 48-35 secret ballot of MPs earlier this week.

Stubbornly refusing to resign despite a collapse of support, Mr Turnbull blamed a group of rebel right-wing MPs and some media commentators for encouraging this week’s putsch.

“Australians will be rightly appalled by what they're witnessing in their nation's Parliament today and in the course of this week,” he said.

“The reality is that a minority in the party room, supported by others outside the Parliament, have sought to bully, intimidate others into making this change of leadership that they're seeking. It’s been described by many people… as a form of madness.”

Mr Dutton, a former policeman who has signalled a tougher approach on immigration and law and order, was expected to battle for the leadership against two more moderate candidates: foreign minister Julie Bishop and  Scott Morrison, the treasurer, a position equivalent to Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Opinion polls show Ms Bishop, who would be only the second female prime minister, is the most publicly popular of the three possible leadership contenders, followed by Mr Morrison. Public support for Mr Dutton as the party’s leader was between 3 and 11 per cent.

In extraordinary scenes in Canberra on Thursday, the ruling Liberal-National Coalition adjourned parliament’s lower house to try to resolve its leadership chaos.

Labor leader Bill Shorten told the chamber: “Australia no longer has a functioning government".

"This is the ultimate admission of surrender, of a bankrupt government, of a failed government,” he said.

Mr Turnbull’s downfall follows a long run of dismal opinion polls as well as enduring concerns among the party’s right-wing MPs that he is too progressive. Since becoming leader, the former Rhodes Scholar  has shed many of his progressive views on issues such as climate change, the republic and same-sex marriage but this has not allayed the suspicions of his opponents. 

Many have not forgiven him for toppling former leader Tony Abbott, a staunch conservative and monarchist, in 2015. Mr Abbott, also a former Rhodes Scholar, remains a backbencher and has repeatedly criticised Mr Turnbull’s leadership.

“The culture of leaking and de-stabilising started when I was prime minister,” Mr Abbott told Radio 2GB.

“Once a culture of plotting takes hold, people who are beneficiaries becomes victims."

No Australian leader has served a full term since John Howard after the 2004 election. Since then, every prime minister – Labor’s Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and Mr Abbott, a Liberal – has been dumped by their party. 

Mr Turnbull’s troubles this week followed his plan to introduce a national target to cut carbon emissions. The policy angered conservatives, who plotted an insurrection even after Mr Turnbull dumped the plan.

Mr Turnbull on Thursday demanded that any MPs who want a ballot must publicly sign a petition, effectively seeking to shame those seeking to topple another prime minister. 

“These are momentous times and it’s important that people are accountable for what they’re doing,”  he said.

Mr Turnbull said he will not stay on as an MP following a ballot, a move that could deprive the Coalition of its one-seat parliamentary majority. This may result in an early general election.

Mr Turnbull also raised questions over whether Mr Dutton is eligible to be an MP because his family’s childcare business has received government funding. 

Australia’s Solicitor-General was asked to rule by Friday on whether Mr Dutton is barred by the constitution. If he is, the right-wing MPs who fomented this rebellion will be without a leader.