Malcolm Turnbull Defeats Tony Abbott to Become Prime Minister of Australia

SYDNEY, Australia — Malcolm Turnbull, a former investment banker and lawyer, was sworn in as prime minister of Australia on Tuesday, after defeating Tony Abbott in a vote of Liberal Party lawmakers.

The vote Monday night was the second challenge to Mr. Abbott’s leadership in seven months. He came to power in September 2013.

Mr. Turnbull, 60, is a moderate whose views, most recently on same-sex marriage, had conflicted with those of Mr. Abbott, 57. The Liberals, despite their name, are the more conservative of Australia’s two major parties.

The new prime minister is likely to be more open to the outside world and less conservative in approach than Mr. Abbott.

Michael Fullilove, the executive director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, said that “when it comes to foreign policy issues, he is less Manichaean, in the sense of being black and white, less prone to seeing the world through a security prism.”            

He said Mr. Turnbull was also more alert to the risks of climate change. And while he would have to convince conservative colleagues of the need for a change in government policy, Dr. Fullilove described him as a “force.”

Mr. Turnbull won the support of 54 of his party colleagues, compared with 44 who voted in favor of Mr. Abbott’s retaining the party leadership.

In a televised statement on Tuesday, Mr. Abbott said he accepted the results, promising “no undermining and no sniping” toward Mr. Turnbull. “My pledge today is to make this change as easy as I can,” he said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will remain deputy leader of the Liberal Party. Ms. Bishop secured 70 votes, against 30 votes for her cabinet colleague Kevin Andrews. One lawmaker missed the vote for the leadership position, joining the session in time for the vote for deputy leader.

Mr. Turnbull, in his first news conference as Liberal leader, said Australia must embrace the challenges it faces and seize the kind of opportunities that sometimes come from disruption.

He promised a leadership that would consult more closely with cabinet ministers and junior lawmakers and would explain and advocate economic policies.

“This has been a very important, sobering experience today. I am very humbled by it,” said Mr. Turnbull, with Ms. Bishop by his side.

“We need to have in this country, and we will have now, an economic vision,” he said, “a leadership that explains the great challenges and opportunities that we face, describes the way in which we can handle those challenges, seizes those opportunities and does so in a manner that the Australian people understand so that we are seeking to persuade, rather than seeking to lecture.”

He said Australia must be agile and innovative. “We cannot be defensive,” he said, adding that the country “cannot future-proof ourselves.”

Asked about issues on which he dissented from conservative core values under Mr. Abbott, Mr. Turnbull said the government had already announced its policy on emission targets to take to the Paris climate change conference in December. He dodged a question on same-sex marriage. Mr. Turnbull had supported changes to Australia’s laws to allow gay marriage, but Mr. Abbott ruled out allowing his coalition lawmakers to vote with their conscience on the issue.

 

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Turnbull called on Mr. Abbott to convene the Liberal voting session. He resigned as communications minister and said at a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, the capital, that he would challenge the prime minister for leadership of the party.

“It is clear enough that the government is not successful in providing the economic leadership that we need,” Mr. Turnbull said.

“It is not the fault of individual ministers,” he said. “Ultimately, the prime minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs. He has not been capable of providing the economic confidence that business needs.”

At a separate news conference, also convened before the vote, Mr. Abbott said: “The prime ministership of this country is not a prize or a plaything to be demanded. It should be something which is earned by a vote of the Australian people.”

However, Mr. Abbott did not have the support of all the members of his cabinet, nor of all of the more junior lawmakers. He lost his office despite pleading with ministers against a change in leadership, which had been the hallmark of the previous, Labor government.

The Labor government was defeated at an election in September 2013 after twice dumping its leaders.

Kevin Rudd was elected prime minister in 2007, only to be replaced by his own party with Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister. Ms. Gillard was later replaced by Mr. Rudd, just months before the September 2013 election.

Mr. Abbott said Monday that he was dismayed at the attempt to destabilize his leadership from within his own party. But he had presided over a government that struggled to get its major budget measures through the lower and upper houses of Parliament.

Proposed university overhauls, a paid parental leave plan and a co-payment for visits to the doctor covered by Australia’s Medicare system were either amended or dropped by the government, which could not negotiate the passage of the legislation.

Economic growth has slowed to around 2 percent a year, well under Australia’s long-term rate of around 3.25 percent, and a sharp drop in the price of the country’s mineral and energy exports, including iron ore and coal, has led to falling tax revenues and to concerns that Australia may be heading for its first recession in 24 years.

The government has signed off on two major trade agreements, one with Japan and another with South Korea, but its agreement with China appears to have stalled in Parliament.

Among other difficulties that Mr. Abbott has faced, an Indonesian people smuggler said in June that the Abbott government had paid him to turn his boat back rather than arrive in Australia, an accusation the government did not deny. In July, Mr. Abbott was forced to defend a senior colleague who had taken a helicopter at taxpayers’ expense rather than a hired car. And in September, a Senate report portrayed Australia’s detention center in the Pacific island nation of Nauru as a purgatory.

Mr. Turnbull also called for greater cabinet consultation and an end “to policy on the run and captain’s calls,” a reference to Mr. Abbott’s decision in February to award Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, an Australian knighthood