After a tumultuous week, Australia has a brand new Prime Minister, and it would appear his every move is being watched closely by the country he now represents.
On Friday, the leadership spill came to a conclusion with (former) Treasurer of Australia Scott Morrison beating out both Minister for Foreign Affairs Julia Bishop and Liberal member Peter Dutton to take over Malcolm Turnbull.
But as we saw from the countless reactions on social media – not everyone is keen on our new PM.
And it’s easy to see why.
From his approach to immigration policy including Operation Sovereign Borders (the government policy which aimed to ‘stop the boats‘) to his decision to abstain from the same sex marriage vote, Morrison has been described as having a “conservative” and “hardline” to policy.
But it’s one of Scott Morrison’s latest tweets – one of his first as Prime Minister – that truly had voters furious.
Sharing a photo eating dinner with his wife Jenny and their two daughters Lily and Abbey, Morrison wrote “taking a quick break with some key stakeholders”.
Twitter users were quick to respond to Morrison’s tweet, questioning whether the new PM’s children knew about his controversial immigration policies.
During his time as Immigration Minister, Morrison was criticised heavily for refusing to provide details about immigration matters. He refused to answer questions about the status of asylum seekers or boats coming to and from Australia.
In 2014 the Australian Human Rights Commission delivered a report to the government which found Morrison failed to act in the best interests of children in detention during his time as minister.
He passed a bill that same year that gave him the power to return asylum seekers to where they came from, detain them without charge and refuse entry to anyone who arrived by boat. This gave him more power than any previous Immigration Minister.
Don’t know what’s happening in Canberra? Mamamia Out Loud speaks to the woman who broke the #libspill story, Sharri Markson.
What do you think about our new PM Scott Morrison? Let us know down below.
Top Comments
He shouldn’t be PM. The Australian voting public DID NOT vote for him. We have been dismissed and ignored by the leading party. Prepare for a bloodbath next election, not only will Labor win by a landslide (god help us) it’s likely the average voter will vote in a host of random, single interest parties and independent candidates in response, making parliament unworkable.
We don't elect PMs - we're not America - we vote for local reps. Whilst I agree that the Coalition will be punished for their inability to show unity and cohesive governance under their leader, it's important to also acknowledge that the party appoints its leader, not the people. Both sides of politics are to blame for the rise of independents and splinter parties; the rot began before the Coalition even won government.
We don't vote for the PM. We vote for our local representative and the party decides who's going to be PM.
It's a pity News Corp/Sky/2GB couldn't understand this concept during the ALP years.
IMO, more independents and minor parties are a good thing, as it breaks up the 2 major parties duopoly in Parliament.
Dude, I know how representative democracy works. I have read our constitution. It really should be mandatory that someone who is eligible to vote should understand our system, have read the constitution and understand the policies and positions of the parties - its painfully obvious most do not.
However, the implication is that you vote in the candidate at the election and if their party has the majority in the lower house then their party takes power, which includes whichever candidates are put forward for the ministerial positions. I would hazard a guess that most voters would know the key players of the party they vote for over their local member.
So we get rid of Talkbull replace him with yet another right wing, religious zealot, who does not think there is anything wrong with all the poor refugees imprisoned on the far away islands? How bloody Christian is that you muppet? And now yo hav bloody Duston & Rabbott back in your favor too! BASTARDS the lot of them!
I couldn’t have said it better myself Bronte I really am LOL.