The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has been hit with a damaging cabinet leak revealing he was rolled over a plan to convince renegade MPs opposed to the government’s religious discrimination bill.
After a torrid start to the parliamentary year, which saw Morrison’s character come under question after the leaking of a damaging text message, the prime minister has spent the week attempting to corral MPs into supporting the religious discrimination bill.
In a story published late on Thursday, The Australian reported Morrison had been rolled in a cabinet meeting on Monday over a proposal to try to win over moderate MPs by introducing a beefed-up version of the government’s integrity commission bill.
Sources have confirmed to Guardian Australia that a discussion on such a proposal took place.
The leak comes at a precarious time for Morrison, who is urging unity among MPs as the government lags behind in the polls and as voters express growing dissatisfaction with the prime minister’s performance over summer.
While supporters of both Peter Dutton and Josh Frydenberg downplayed suggestions of leadership strife, the airing of the cabinet discussion in which Morrison’s proposal was overruled is likely to fuel instability ahead of next week’s parliamentary sitting.
It will be the last sitting of the House of Representatives before the budget in March, after which Morrison is expected to call an election for May.
In a joint partyroom meeting on Tuesday, Morrison appealed to Coalition MPs to “come together” in the lead-up to the election, emphasising the importance of a unity of purpose.
“I’m going to lead, and I’m asking you once again to follow me to an election victory,” Morrison said.
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But the call for unity was followed by an immediate display of division, after five moderate MPs defied Morrison’s plea and crossed the floor to support amendments to put in place protections for LGBTQ students.
This sparked a backlash from conservative MPs and the Christian lobby, prompting Morrison to shelve the bill.
Morrison is now unlikely to be able to deliver on the promise of legislating on religious discrimination or a commonwealth integrity commission before the next election.
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Amid the upheaval for the government, Morrison sought to direct attention to the Coalition’s traditional strengths of national security and the economy, using question time to target the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, saying he was “happy” to appease China.
“Those who are seeking to coerce Australia and our region do not want to see this government re-elected, they don’t want to see us re-elected, they know who their candidate is in this election, it is the leader of the Labor party,” Morrison said.
The defence minister, Peter Dutton, went further, sparking uproar in the House of Representatives by saying the Chinese government had “made a decision about who they will back in the next federal election”.
“We now see evidence, Mr Speaker, that the Chinese Communist party, the Chinese government, has also made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election, Mr Speaker, and that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked this bloke as that candidate,” Dutton said.
The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, said any suggestion of treason, sedition or anything against the national security of this nation “has been dealt with by Speakers in the strictest terms”.
But in remarks that were condemned by Labor, Dutton suggested that his comments were based on “what has been publicly reported and commented on by the director general of Asio”, pointing to remarks made on Thursday by the Asio boss, Mike Burgess, about the risk of foreign interference at the upcoming election.
“I have not made any allegations against the leader of the opposition,” Dutton said. “Mine is a reflection on the Chinese government, the actions of the Chinese government, and that is the context in which I made the comment, and it is perfectly in order. It might be uncomfortable for those opposite but it is perfectly in order.”
The combative senior conservative also suggested Albanese was “unprepared” to become prime minister, comparing him to the former Labor leader Mark Latham.
Speaking after question time, Albanese asked the Speaker of the House, Andrew Wallace, to examine the Hansard record of Dutton’s remarks and report back to the parliament, saying the reflections on his approach to national security were of a “very serious nature”.
“I take that very seriously and the idea that that should be the subject of partisanship and partisan domestic debate at a time of international uncertainty is just not acceptable and not in Australia’s national interest,” he said.
He asked that Wallace seek a briefing from Burgess, criticising Dutton for bringing into parliament the “purported view” of the Asio director.
“To bring in someone from outside who is well respected, who has a job in our national security infrastructure and to attempt to use them in a partisan way is a very serious matter indeed,” Albanese said.
