14 September 2015
Malcolm Turnbull calls a press conference after Monday’s question time, declaring that he has resigned from his role as the communications minister in order to run against Tony Abbott.
Turnbull says that Abbott has failed to strengthen the economy, and that his leadership style is flawed.
“We need advocacy, not slogans. We need to respect the intelligence of the Australian people,” he said.
The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, reportedly confronted the prime minister before question time and told him to stand aside.
“The prime ministership of this country is not a prize or a plaything to be demanded. It should be something which is earned by a vote of the Australian people,” he told reporters on Monday night. “ There will be a party room ballot for both the leadership and deputy leadership positions later this evening. I will be a candidate and I expect to win.”
13 September 2015
News emerges that party whip, Andrew Nikolic, wrote to Malcolm Turnbull asking him to definitively rule out leadership intentions. Turnbull refuses, saying that doing so would add to the speculation.
A Galaxy poll released shows that a massive swing against the government of 10% in the Western Australian electorate of Canning, which will hold a byelection on September 19, following the sudden death of sitting member, Don Randall. The Coalition is still ahead, but on the wafer-thin margin of 2%.
Abbott refuses to be drawn on whether he will stand down if the byelection is lost.
“We’re not going to lose the Canning byelection. We’ve got an outstanding candidate,” he said.
7 September 2015
The Abbott government marks two years in office, but with little to celebrate. A number of reform measures are languishing in the Senate due to lack of support, and opinion polls show that the government’s standing has tanked since the election.
The polling day lead held by the Coalition in 2013, of 54% to Labor’s 46%, has reversed, with Labor enjoying an eight point lead over the government in the two-party preferred standings.
Abbott’s personal ratings have also sunk, with his overall performance standing at -33% to Shorten’s -28%.
3 September 2015
Media mogul and Abbott confidante, Rupert Murdoch, calls for a snap poll, saying Australia has become “almost ungovernable”. Despite the call, Murdoch said that Abbott “is by far the best alternative” to be prime minister.
17 August 2015
The Senate rejects measures to set up a new registered organisations commission for a second time, setting up a double dissolution trigger. The bill would bring the reporting and transparency obligations of trade unions in line with corporations.
2 August 2015
Bronwyn Bishop resigns as speaker of the house after a series of expenses scandals. The most damaging centred on news that she spent $5,000 on chartering a private helicopter to travel between Melbourne and Geelong for a Liberal party fundraiser.
The scandal had overshadowed the government’s legislative agenda, and seen a further dip in the polls.
12 May 2015
The federal government delivers its second federal budget, a totally different beast from its first. There are few surprises on the night, and unpopular measures like forcing young jobseekers to wait six months to access the dole, are watered down or scrapped altogether.
One of the most controversial measures – reforms to higher education – remains on the table despite an impasse in the Senate.
9 February 2015
Tony Abbott clings to power and buys time to resuscitate his prime ministership after a motion for a leadership vote was defeated by 61 votes to 39 in a special party room meeting. There was no declared challenger for the leadership. Abbott says that “good government starts today”, and urges his colleagues to give him six months to turn the government’s fortunes around.
He refers to the spill that wasn’t as a “near death experience”. His overall rating slips to an all-time low of -44%.
8 February 2015
Abbott calls a press conference, flanked by deputy and possible leadership contender, Julie Bishop, in which he calls forward the spill motion for the following day. The timing does not give his competitors time to mobilise, and angers some of his colleagues.
“We cannot govern ourselves in an internal climate of fear and intimidation,” backbencher Teresa Gambaro said. “Equally we cannot govern the country through belligerence and hubris. In our parliamentary democracy, MPs, as elected officials, have the individual honour to serve the people of their respective electorates and as such deserve to have their voices heard. This is the path to good government.”
6 February 2015
Western Australia Liberal backbencher Luke Simpkins gives notice that he will move a leadership spill motion, to be seconded by the fellow WA MP Don Randall.
He writes to his colleagues, urging them to support the motion.
“The knighthood issue was for many people the final proof of a disconnection with the people,” Simpkins says in the letter. “I think that we must bring this situation to a head, and test the support of the leadership in the party room.”
3 February 2015
Two Liberal backbenchers break ranks by publicly calling for a change in leadership. Western Australian MP, Dennis Jensen, texts Abbott to say he no longer enjoys his support.
We are “not governing as we should be”, he tells the ABC. “There is no strategic direction, the policy is not consistent and coherent.”
Queensland MP Warren Entsch also withdraws his support for the prime minister.
2 February 2015
Abbott stares down his challengers during an address to the National Press Club, saying that only voters should decide who becomes leader.
“We were elected in 2013 because the Australian people rejected chaos and we are not going to take them back to that chaos,” he said. “It’s the people who hire and frankly it’s the people who should fire.”
But the prime minister announces that he will shelve the generous paid parental leave scheme, and ensure that all future knight and dame appointments be made by the Council of the Order of Australia.
31 January 2015
Campbell Newman’s Coalition government is trounced in Queensland, after enjoying just one term in office.
The result puts pressure on Abbott, whose leadership style was similar to Newman’s.
“There are lessons in this result for all governments, including the federal one,” a statement by Abbott reads. “The Liberal National party will be looking at them closely.”
26 January 2015
Abbott appoints Prince Philip as Australia’s newest knight, making the announcement on Australia Day and immediately prompting ridicule from critics and colleagues alike.
“Prince Philip has been a great servant of Australia,” Abbott said. “I’m just really pleased that in his 90s, towards the end of a life of service and duty, we in this country are able to properly acknowledge what he’s done for us.”
He admits that he did not consult with colleagues before making the decision.
Liberal backbencher, Andrew Laming, later pens a private member’s bill to scrap knights and dames from the honours system altogether.
21 December 2014
Abbott announces a reshuffle of his ministry, his first since the Coalition came to government. Defence minister, David Johnston, is dumped, after coming under increasing pressure for criticising South Australian submarine builders, ASC. Kevin Andrews takes on the vacant role, and his previous portfolio of social services goes to Scott Morrison.
Sussan Ley is the biggest winner of the reshuffle, entering cabinet by taking on the critical health portfolio.
9 December 2014
The government scraps its electorally unpopular plan to charge non-concessional patients $7 to visit the doctor. The measure was one of the biggest and most controversial budget savings measures in the 2014 federal budget.
The health minister, Peter Dutton, announces a plan B which will see Medicare rebates cut by $20 for short consultation. This measure is scrapped just a month later.
29 November 2014
Labor beats the Coalition in the Victorian state election, after the government switched leaders part way through its first term.
Former Liberal premier, Jeff Kennett, says Abbott must take some of the blame for the outcome, pointing specifically to the government’s decision to introduce a fuel excise when the campaign was underway.
2 September 2014
The mining tax is repealed, after the government strikes a deal with the Palmer United party to delay the abolition of a number of budgetary measures like the schoolchildren’s bonus, which were to be funded from the money recouped by the tax.
“It’s a good deal because it honours our commitment to get rid of the mining tax and while it doesn’t get rid of all the associated spending immediately, it does get rid of the spending that was simply unsustainable,” Abbott said.
31 August 2014
Australia joins the airstrike against Isis, or Daesh, in Iraq after being invited to do so by coalition forces. Abbott later announces that Australian troops will be sent to Iraq on a training mission.
In 2015, Abbott announces that the mission will be extended to include extremist targets in Syria.
5 August 2014
Abbott announces an overhaul of anti-terror laws to combat homegrown extremism, including greater powers to ban organisations, cancel passports and permit arrests without warrants.
In announcing the changes, Abbott also announces that the government will no longer pursue changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination act.
“I don’t want to do anything that puts our national unity at risk at this time so those proposals are now off the table,” he said.
17 July 2014
The government fulfils a key election promise by repealing the carbon tax.
“Today the parliament finally listened. Today the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone,” Abbott declares.
The government’s first attempt to axe the tax, in March 2014, failed. It tried again once the new Senate sat in July.
The carbon tax played a large part in the downfall of the Gillard prime ministership, representing a broken promise that she would never introduce new taxes if Labor was voted to power.
5 April 2014
Western Australia goes to the polls for a second time in less than a year, for a re-run of its Senate election. The original 2013 election result was voided by the high court because of the loss of nearly 1,400 ballot papers.
Both the Liberal party and Labor suffered swings of more than 5% away from them, with the Greens and the Palmer United party reaping the spoils. The final result saw three seats go to the Liberal party, and one each to Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United party.
17 February 2014
Three days of rioting in the Manus Island facility culminate in the death of 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, Reza Barati.
The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, accuses Barati of leaving the safety of the compound before he was killed.
“If people chose to remove themselves from that centre then they are obviously putting themselves at a place of much greater risk and in an environment like that where there is violent behaviour on the part of those who are breaching the perimeter fence and going out of the centre then this is a disorderly environment in which there is always great risk,” Morrison says.
He corrected the record soon after, following revelations that Barati was killed inside the centre.
Two Papua New Guineans were arrested and charged with his murder in August 2014.
18 November 2013
Within months of taking office, the Coalition government faces its first scandal. Revelations that the former Labor government attempted to intercept the phone records of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2009 strained the bilateral relationship.
Abbott refuses to comment on the revelations, a response that draws a sharp rebuke from Yudhoyono.
“I also regret the statement by the Australian PM that belittles this surveillance to Indonesia, as if no wrong has been done,” the president tweeted, referring to Abbott.
23 September 2013
The newly-sworn in government convenes the first meeting of its Operation Sovereign Borders team. The hardline immigration policy includes provisions to turn back asylum boats, resulting in just one asylum boat arriving in Australia during the first two years of the Abbott government.
7 September 2013
The Coalition sweeps to power in a general election, ending six years of Labor rule. Tony Abbott, who led the Coalition to victory, declares that Australia is “under new management and is once more open for business”.
Abbott lists strong border protection measures, strengthening the economy and repealing the unpopular carbon and mining taxes as the new government’s priorities.
The cabinet is sworn in less than a fortnight later, and is criticised for having just one woman – foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop.
