SYDNEY—Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Aug. 26 she has resigned from new Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Cabinet, two days after a bruising leadership battle that toppled former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Bishop announced she would move to the backbench and had not yet decided whether to contest the next election, which is due by May 2019. That decision could have serious implications for Morrison’s government, which has a parliamentary majority of only one seat.
He took over as leader of the Liberal Party, the senior partner in a Liberal-National coalition that has consistently trailed the opposition left-leaning Labor party in opinion polls in recent months.
“I will remain on the backbench as a strong voice for Western Australia,” Bishop said in a statement soon after she arrived back in her home state.
The possibility that Bishop could leave parliament before the next election will be a major concern for Morrison, Turnbull’s former treasurer, because it opens the possibility of another by-election being held for her seat.
His party will already have to contest a by-election for Turnbull’s harbourside electorate in Sydney, traditionally a safe Liberal seat. Turnbull’s resignation from parliament was expected in the coming week.
Morrison has spent his first two full days in power working on a new Cabinet. His Liberal deputy and former energy and environment minister Josh Frydenburg will take over as treasurer. Former Defence Minister Marise Payne has been appointed as Australia’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs.
