Only on Wednesday Scott Morrison took Malcolm Turnbull in a side hug and when asked if he bore leadership ambitions he replied: “This is my leader. I’m ambitious for him”.
That wasn’t exactly an untruth even as speculation firmed a day later that he, of course, did want the prime ministership, and he’d put his hand in the ring when the leadership would be open for contest.
In 2015, Mr Morrison, then the Social Services Minister, revealed that Tony Abbott had offered him the job as Treasurer and deputy leader in a last-minute attempt to save his prime ministership, ahead of the spill that resulted in Malcolm Turnbull as PM.
Mr Morrison declined both offers, voted for Mr Abbott, but got the coveted job as Treasurer under Mr Turnbull anyway. It was a win-win.
This time around, Mr Morrison managed what has been one of the most chaotic and shambolic spills in Australian political history without blood on his hands and emerged victor anyway.
He didn’t tear down the prime ministership, the spill wasn’t pushed by him but Peter Dutton - and that could be a better sell to a disillusioned public that’s been watching this saga of rotating leaders with distaste.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg after a swearing in ceremony at Government House in Canberra, Friday, August 24, 2018. Source: AAP
What does a Morrison victory mean for the Liberals?
From the outset, a Peter Dutton victory would have been difficult for the Liberal party to push to the public.
While believed to have strong support among MPs in his home state of Queensland where several marginal seats are at hand, Mr Dutton as prime minister was considered to have been a tougher sell to voters in NSW and Victoria.
And at the same time as he was canvassing numbers for his leadership, questions around Mr Dutton’s eligibility for parliament were still swirling around his interests in child care centres he owns through a trust receiving Commonwealth funds.
Even the Solicitor General’s advice which was released just hours before the midday spill didn’t exactly endorse his eligibility whole-heartedly.
Put simply, you could not have a new prime minister and new leader during what would have been a ‘honeymoon phase’ under an eligibility cloud.
Mr Morrison is socially conservative and economically liberal enough to appease the Right wing of the party.
Liberal MPs say Scott Morrison’s pitch to colleagues was simple - “I can hold the team together. I can say I’ve stopped the boats and cut the taxes. I’ve got clean hands in this transition.”
As a former treasurer who’s delivered three budgets, he can also boast to having the economic credentials to appeal to the Liberal voter base and businesses.
However, Mr Morrison was the man behind the company tax cuts, the subject of the recent divisions within the party. Now he’s the prime minister. And his new deputy Josh Frydenberg was the chief architect of the national energy guarantee – which was cited as the reason why the Liberal Right wing had moved the spill in the first place.
On a policy level then, the question for the party is – what has changed now under the new leadership, and can he unite the party on policies that continue to fracture it?
Perhaps the most telling aspect about the week’s events is the loss of Julie Bishop as deputy leader and the missed opportunity for the Liberal party to capitalise on her popularity among voters.
A snap poll conducted by Roy Morgan just a day before the spill showed she was the strongest contender among Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull to win an election against Bill Shorten.
A loyal deputy for more than a decade, Ms Bishop put her hand up for the leadership at Friday’s party meeting, only to be knocked out in the first round. The party effectively rejected the person most likely to win them another term in office.
How will a Morrison victory affect the federal election?
It could make fighting an election against Labor easier for the coalition than under Mr Dutton.
As one Labor insider told SBS News following Friday’s spill result, Mr Dutton would have been an easier target on a policy fight, especially since his idea of removing the GST on power bills was even rejected by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann – a last-minute supporter of his.
But the distaste with which the public – largely ignored in this week’s bunfight of political ambition – has received this latest spill has handed Labor an opportunity to campaign on stability and party unity after the upheaval it suffered during the Rudd-Gillard years.
And as the insider put it, Mr Morrison will have to sell himself to a public largely unaware of his profile: “They’ve shifted to a guy who’s less well-known and less popular than Turnbull – but who will largely continue his policy agenda.”
Beyond his pledge as the incoming PM to prioritise drought relief and institute a low-taxing government, Australians are in the dark about what Mr Morrison will be like as their newest leader.
What the public and interest groups are relying on are past comments, his track record as treasurer, immigration and social services ministers, and his socially conservative beliefs.
On immigration, Mr Morrison has previously slapped down a proposal by Tony Abbott to reduce migration by 80,000 people saying it would cost the budget billions of dollars.
New Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison with daughters, Abigail, second from right, and Lily, second from left, and wife Jenny after being sworn in Source: AAP
But he is also the man behind Operation Sovereign Borders and widely credited for “stopping the boats” as immigration minister. It’s unlikely Mr Morrison will have a change of heart on refugee policy and offshore detention.
On climate change, Mr Morrison hasn’t been forthcoming about his personal views but nor has he shied away from displaying his agreement with coal – he once brought a lump of coal into the lower house to celebrate the commodity during question time. Climate change was also absent from his most recent budget.
As for his religious beliefs, Mr Morrison appears to be both a staunch Christian – voting against same-sex marriage for example - but once offered a pragmatic line: “the Bible is not a policy handbook, and I get very worried when people try to treat it like one”.
