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Multimillionaire former banker and lawyer Malcolm Turnbull has clung to power in Australia, but the tech-savvy grandfather dubbed “Mr Harbourside Mansion” won only a begrudging victory with voters.
Turnbull called the election early, hoping to shore up his power after ousting fellow conservative Tony Abbott in a Liberal Party vote in September but the move appears to have backfired.
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His declaration of victory on Sunday - which came a protracted eight days after the July 2 polls - gave the 61-year-old only a narrow victory, with uncertainty over whether he will form a minority or majority government.
The election reduced Turnbull’s Liberal/National government’s seats in parliament, and the ongoing vote count by the electoral commission has so far given the coalition 74 seats, two short of a parliamentary majority.
There are two possibilities: Either the coalition will form a majority government by a slim margin, or the country will have a hung parliament. If that happens, Turnbull’s coalition will forge an alliance with independent and minor party lawmakers to form a minority government. Three independent lawmakers have already pledged their support to the coalition if such a situation arises.
Asked whether he thought his party would win a majority, Turnbull replied simply: “We’ve won the election.”
With a campaign slogan out of an American sitcom, Turnbull suffered criticism that he was out-of-touch with ordinary Australians as he pitched to retain the nation’s leadership on his economic credentials.
His removal of a sitting prime minister alienated some voters, and Abbott’s former staffer Peta Credlin dubbed him “Mr Harbourside Mansion” when he failed to do a street walk in one of Sydney’s less affluent western suburbs.
Even a sentimental video highlighting his modest upbringing with a single parent dad, who did his best after Turnbull’s mother left, failed to pierce this perception.
“Turnbull lacks the common touch,” noted distinguished commentator Paul Kelly inThe Weekend Australianafter the election.
“Too many people see him as an elitist.”
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Rich, suave and sophisticated, Turnbull has long been a public figure, and was seen as having socially progressive views on issues such as climate change and gay marriage before he took over from the hard-line Abbott.
As he enjoyed an early honeymoon in polls, he was seen as the conservative who could win over swinging left-leaning voters while at the same time implement the economic agenda needed to spur growth.
But he presided over uncertainty on tax policy, which was compounded by the perception that even as prime minister
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He had long been seen as prime ministerial material, and after months of meticulous planning was able to oust Abbott 54-44 in last year’s dramatic Liberal Party room vote.
The silver-haired grandfather immediately pledged to provide economic leadership, while being a more consultative leader, restoring traditional cabinet government and ending policy-on-the-run.
But Turnbull has struggled to convince voters that his leadership was different to Abbott’s, at one point explaining his government as providing both “continuity” and “change”.
The line is uncannily like the “Continuity with Change” slogan used by the fictional politician Selina Meyer in the political satire “Veep”, prompting the show’s star Julia Louis-Dreyfus to say she was “dumbstruck” by the coincidence.
Despite the victory, Turnbull faces a tough road ahead with a divided party, a fractured Senate and a weary electorate. The government went into the election with a comfortable majority of 90 seats and few had predicted it would suffer such steep losses.
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The result has raised the prospect that Turnbull could face a leadership challenge from colleagues unhappy with the party’s weak showing. If Turnbull ends up being tossed out, Australia would end up with its fifth prime minister in just over three years, continuing a period of remarkable volatility in the nation’s politics.
