“This is a deeply disappointing result, we’ll cop it on the chin,” Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Josh Frydenberg told Sky News on Sunday. The ruling Liberal Party had been punished for infighting that resulted in Malcolm Turnbull being ousted as prime minister in August, leading to the weekend poll in his old seat, Frydenberg added.
The government still intends to run its full term, Frydenberg said, with a general election due in May 2019, despite the ruling coalition now holding just 75 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
“We’ve already had some very constructive discussions with the cross-benchers and a number of them have made it very clear that they want the government to run its full term,” he said.
Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps claimed victory on Saturday night in the electorate of Wentworth with just over 30% of the vote counted. The massive swing against the Liberals is a blow to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has been in the job less than two months.
Morrison said earlier in the week that Australia was open to moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move widely viewed as an attempt to win over Jewish voters in Wentworth, who make up around 12.5% of the electorate. Morrison denied it was a political ploy and, it appears to have had little effect.
Disillusionment with the government’s lack of action to combat climate change was another key issue for voters in the well-healed eastern suburbs of Sydney, where Wentworth is located.
Polls show Morrison is on track to lose power to the Bill Shorten-led Labor opposition in a general election due next year. The prime minister had warned losing Wentworth would cause “unnecessary instability” by erasing the government’s one-seat majority.
Senior opposition Labor Party lawmaker Tony Burke said on Sunday the people of Wentworth had made a clear statement that “they’ve had enough of the instability, they’ve had enough of the division,” but added the opposition would not be seeking to bring down the government.
“To get to a vote of no confidence you need 76 votes and we want to see a Shorten Labor government elected at a general election,” Burke told ABC TV. Labor holds 69 seats in the lower house.
Voter discontent
While minor-party lawmakers have indicated they won’t support any no-confidence motion in the government that may force an early election, the by-election result shows voters are disillusioned with the infighting in the ruling Liberal-National coalition government that’s caused policy paralysis in key areas including energy security and tackling climate change.
The Liberal Party and its conservative predecessors had never lost an election in the affluent, inner-Sydney seat of Wentworth since it was created in 1901. It was held by a 17.7% margin under Turnbull, who quit parliament after he was ousted as leader in the August party coup.
Phelps, a doctor and former leader of the nation’s peak medical professional body, has also said she won’t support a vote of no-confidence in the government.
“Just a few short weeks ago I was told this was an impossible task and if we actually managed to win the seat of Wentworth, that it would be a miracle,” Phelps said in her victory speech. “People have been concerned about the direction of government for a very long time.”