Scott Morrison said his conservative government had left Australia in a robust condition, even as voters on Saturday punished him for his handling of issues …
Scott Morrison said his conservative government had left Australia in a robust condition, even as voters on Saturday punished him for his handling of issues including climate change and the pandemic that helped return the center-left opposition to power for the first time in almost a decade. Morrison, 54, said he would step down as head of the Liberal party — the senior member of the conservative coalition that had ruled since 2013 — after conceding defeat to the Labor party and its leader Anthony Albanese. A former tourism marketer before switching to politics, Morrison was labeled the « accidental prime minister » in 2018 when his government colleagues chose him to replace then-leader Malcolm Turnbull. Morrison sprung a major surprise by leading the coalition to victory in a 2019 election said to be unwinnable. He has since been deeply criticized for dragging the chain on climate change and for not establishing a promised integrity and corruption watchdog overseeing national politicians. He was also scorned for taking a vacation in Hawaii during Australia’s major bushfire crisis in the summer of 2019-20, for his government’s bungling of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program, and more lately, for being at the helm while South Pacific neighbors, the Solomon Islands, struck up a strategic partnership with China.
