‘Coup capital of democratic world’

ON SEPT. 14, a week before Filipinos commemorated the 43rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Australia ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott through parliamentary process. He was not able to serve out his first term.

Abbott, who won power in a general election in September 2013, was ousted not by the opposition Australian Labor Party but by a fellow Liberal Party member of Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull, in a party caucus room vote.

Turnbull, who is identified with the party’s moderate wing of the Liberal Party, defeated Abbott of the right wing in a vote for party leader. He was sworn in as prime minister of Australia by Governor General Peter Cosgrove just hours after masterminding a coup against Abbott and pledging a new economic vision.

Turnbull became Australia’s 29th prime minister and the fourth in five years, as Australian political parties maintain a brutal tradition of swiftly removing failing leaders.

The ouster of Abbott prompted the staid British news organization, BBC, to send to its global online network a report headlined, “Australia: Coup capital of the democratic world.”

The report said that, “with five prime ministers in as many years, Canberra has solidified its reputation as the coup capital of the democratic world.”

According to the BBC report, a quarter century of reform under Bob Hawke (Labor), Paul Keating (Labor ) and Joan Howard (Liberal) “has been followed by an era of revenge, marked by revolving chair tenure of deposed party leaders.”

Turnbull was once knifed by the leader he deposed, Abbott. “Kevin Rudd (Labor) was ousted by Julia Gillard (Labor), but then exacted revenge by overthrowing her.” It is now over a decade since an Australian prime minister managed to serve out his or her first term.

Let us not make the rash conclusion that this rapid turnover of prime ministers and frequency of coups that Australian parliamentary democracy has become unstable and its political system has become as turbulent as those coup-ridden Third World societies of Africa and Southeast Asia.

A review of the most memorable Australian parliamentary coups shows these did not involve military intervention or military takeover of centers of political power. A list of these memorable Australian “coups,” reviewed by BBC, included those in 1983, 1991, 2010 and 2013.

Ousted in a spill

In 1983, Bob Hawke (Labor, a former trade union leader) ousted Bill Hayden as party leader in a “spill” (Australian term for leadership challenge). On the day Hawke became party leader, Malcolm Fraser, the Conservative prime minister, called a snap election, hoping to capitalize on Labor’s feuding. Hawke went on to win the election in a landslide.

In June 1991, Paul Keating failed to oust Hawke as party leader in a leadership spill and retreated to the back benches. But Keating wielded the knife in December 1991, this time with brutal success.

In 2007, Rudd (Labor) won the election, but he did not survive a first full term. In 2010, following policy conflicts with his deputy leader, Julia Gillard, over an emission trading system and a proposed mining tax, he was ousted by Gillard.

Though Rudd became foreign minister in Gillard’s government, he started plotting his revenge almost immediately, causing a destabilizing presence in the Gillard government.

During a trip to Washington in February 2012, Rudd dramatically resigned and announced he was challenging Gillard for the leadership. On that occasion, Gillard won comfortably.

Rudd exacted his revenge in June 2013, when, in a desperate attempt to avoid being buried under an electoral landslide, the party room restored him to the prime ministership, but his feud with Gillard left the Labor Party deeply fractured.

Party-driven coups

The role of disciplined parties in leadership changes in the prime ministership is underlined in the above review of party-driven coups in the Australian party system. The coups shed light on how the system operates to topple failing governments without sending tanks and troops to seize power.

The election of Turnbull as the new prime minister of Australia illustrates the ouster of Abbott through the procedure of the vote in the parliamentary caucus room, without compromising the electoral system’s legitimacy. The party vote for Turnbull as party leader, replacing Abbott, marks the entry of a moderate centrist into the Canberra power structure.

Turnbull is a multimillionaire, who hails from the richest of Australia’s richest constituency, the eastern suburbs of Sydney. He is known to be a republican, environmentalist and social moderate. He was elected party leader in the wake of the growing unpopularity of Abbott.

Abbott won power in a general election in September 2013, but his first budget proved highly unpopular. He survived a leadership challenge in February after poor polling and serious gaffes ignited a back bench revolt.

But he has failed to turn around the polls, bolster the economy or stop damaging internal leaks, losing support of the majority of his party.

After his 54-44 victory on Sept. 14, Turnbull, a lawyer and banker, ruled out an early national election to cement his leadership. Elections need not be held before January 2017.

The party caucus room saved the ruling Liberal Party coalition from Labor’s electoral challenge by dumping Abbott’s right-wing extremism. In revamping his Cabinet, Turnbull is thought likely to sweep out traditional conservatives, and bring in younger blood and more women.