Watch the revolving door: Leadership spills are the status quo in Australian politics

By JAMES  WF ROBERTS

The Liberal Party's bloody leadership battle wasn't about the next election, it was all about the party's Right-wing wanting control, political commentator Dr Nick Economou says. 

Scott Morrison became Australia's 30th prime minister when he took over from Malcolm Turnbull in a party meeting on Friday – the 12th to come to power without facing an election. 

Monash senior lecturer in politics and international relations Dr Economou said the spill seemed to have a "strong ideological feel to it".

“Normally, such battles occur because there’s a sense that the incumbent has lost the support of the swinging voters, and the pragmatists in the party say, in order to win the next election we need to go with someone more popular,” Dr Economou said.

But over the past three years, it is the Abbott-Turnbull rivalry – between a Moderate and the Right wing – that has taken the limelight, with arch-conservative Peter Dutton adding a third corner to the triangle. 

“Many members of the Liberal Party feel aggrieved at Turnbull achieving things that would normally be associated with the Left side of politics, such as the marriage equality referendum, and the prospect of Turnbull achieving another left-of-centre agenda in the form of carbon emission reductions,” he said.

“It was probably a bridge too far for a party that appears to be quite socially conservative.”

And for the Right wing, risking an image of party fragility to the public is a risk worth taking if it is rewarded with power within the party.

“The result of the next election is immaterial. It is control of the party they want. That is all that concerns the Conservative-Right faction,” Dr Economou said.

For many, the most recent spill seemed to come out of nowhere. But according to Dr Economou, the Longman by-election in July – in which the LNP lost a seat to Labor – was the catalyst. 

It weakened Mr Turnbull's position, which was only exacerbated by recent political events. 

“The way in which Turnbull tried to negotiate the National Energy Guarantee, it was almost farcical. Within 48 hours he had reshaped it, at the behest of the very people who can’t stand him, [that] then signalled weakness,” he said.

If history has shown Australians anything, we can expect more leadership spills and instability in the future, Dr Economou said.

From the National Party’s (then called the Country Party) decision to veto William McMahon in 1968, to Sir John Gorton’s loss to McMahon again in his own leadership ballot in 1971, leadership spills are often fanned by political instability and power grabs. More recently, former prime minister Tony Abbott was ousted by Mr Turnbull in 2015.

“Leadership spills and power plays will always happen, it’s not the fault of the system nor the way things are done, it is the way system has and always will work,” he said. 

This one wasn't  particularly unusual. 

“I’m old enough to remember the Whitlam dismissal, and this is in the second division compared to that," he said.

"This is not that strange, or absurd. That was a full-on constitutional crisis, made all the more difficult because we were literally in uncharted waters. This is just merely a battle within the party,” he said.