Malcolm Turnbull has called all eight of the Senate crossbenchers, taken a call from the US president, Barack Obama, signed an agreement with two state premiers and called other premiers, in his first full day as prime minister.
In between constructing his new frontbench and managing a parliamentary sitting week, Turnbull sought to build bridges with the crossbench senators who will determine the fate of his legislative agenda, telling them he wanted “good communication”.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm said it was a short “hello how are you” call, with an agreement to talk again.
“I’ve said publicly Malcolm Turnbull could help the government’s cause in the Senate. His predecessor never tried very hard. He left negotiations up to his ministers, and some of them weren’t all that good at it.”
Palmer United party senator Dio Wang said he thought the early conversation with Turnbull was a good sign.
Senator Glenn Lazarus told Radio National on Wednesday he also expected Turnbull to be easier to work with.
“I was pretty frustrated with Tony Abbott, I’ve got to admit, with my crossbench colleagues. They had the same opinion. There was no enthusiasm to meet with us. It was very difficult to get a meeting with him and in the 15 months or so I have only had one meeting” whereas Turnbull “seems to be prepared to listen, and that was something Tony Abbott didn’t do”.
Turnbull is also considering his new frontbench, which will be sworn in on Monday. The social services minister, Scott Morrison, is widely tipped to take treasury. Joe Hockey said he had had “discussions” with the new prime minister, but declined to say whether he had been offered an alternative portfolio. The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has offered his resignation by text, but said he was also prepared to stay and serve in the Turnbull ministry. Turnbull said he had not spoken to Dutton.
He would definitely like to include more than the two women in the current cabinet.
“There is no greater enthusiast than me for seeing more women in positions of power and influence in parliament, in ministries right across the country,” he said.
“I can assure you that. I am very committed to that, but I am not going to say any more about the new ministerial arrangements. You don’t have long to wait.”
Turnbull attended a prearranged signing for the national disability insurance scheme with the NSW premier, Mike Baird, and the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and also called the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk.
He also took the traditional call to new prime ministers from Obama, who also called Abbott to thank him for his service.
Labor continued to put Turnbull under pressure over his promise to retain Abbott’s Direct Action climate policy, given his previous strident attacks on it, and his insistence that it could not meet deeper greenhouse gas reduction targets in an affordable way.
Meanwhile ministers, unsure whether they will still have their jobs by the end of the week, went about their business.
Hockey announced legislation to crackdown on multinational tax evasion, the defence minister, Kevin Andrews, announced the first successful bombing raids on Syria and the trade minister, Andrew Robb, introduced enabling legislation for the China-Australia free trade agreement.
