page_title: Scott Morrison
section_title: Leadership election
hierarchical_section_title: Scott Morrison / Prime Minister of Australia (2018–present) / Leadership election
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump participates in a trilateral meeting Friday, November 30, 2018, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and India Prime Minister Narenda Modi at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
context_page_description: Scott John Morrison is an Australian politician serving as the 30th and current prime minister of Australia having become the leader of the Liberal Party in August 2018. He has held senior ministerial office since 2013, including as Treasurer in the Turnbull Government.
  Morrison was born in Sydney and studied economic geography at the University of New South Wales. He worked as director of the New Zealand Office of Tourism and Sport from 1998 to 2000 and was managing director of Tourism Australia from 2004 to 2006. Morrison was also state director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004. He was later elected to the House of Representatives at the 2007 election, representing the Division of Cook in New South Wales.
  After the Coalition victory at the 2013 election, Morrison was appointed Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in the Abbott Government, in which capacity he was responsible for implementing Operation Sovereign Borders. In a reshuffle the following year, he became Minister for Social Services. He was later promoted to the role of Treasurer in September 2015, after Malcolm Turnbull replaced Abbott as prime minister.
context_section_description: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called a leadership spill on 21 August 2018 in order to gauge the confidence of the Liberal Party in his leadership. He defeated challenger Peter Dutton by 48 votes to 35. Over the following days, there was repeated speculation about a second spill being called, without Turnbull's approval. Turnbull announced two days later that he would resign the leadership if a spill motion were passed. Dutton, Morrison and Julie Bishop announced they would stand for the leadership if that were the case.
  A spill motion was passed on 24 August by 45 votes to 40, and Turnbull did not run as a candidate in the resulting leadership vote. On the first ballot, Dutton received 38 votes, Morrison 36 votes, and Bishop 11 votes. On the second ballot, Morrison received 45 votes and Dutton 40 votes. He thus became leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister-designate. Josh Frydenberg was elected as the party's deputy leader, in place of Bishop. Morrison was widely seen as a compromise candidate, who was agreeable to both the moderate supporters of Turnbull and Bishop and conservatives concerned about Dutton's electability. He was sworn in as prime minister on the evening of 24 August.
  Soon after Morrison was sworn in, Nationals backbencher Kevin Hogan moved to the crossbench in protest of the wave of Liberal spills. Although Hogan continued to support the Coalition on confidence and supply and remained in the National party room, his departure to the crossbench and Turnbull's retirement from politics reduced the Coalition to a minority government of 74 seats. The Morrison Government remained in minority after Turnbull's seat of Wentworth was lost to an independent at a by-election.
caption: Morrison with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires
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