Australia's prime minister and the man he replaced clashed on Tuesday. The dispute happened after an indication that splits the ruling that the party are still wide as the country heads into a possible early election in July.
According to ABC NEWS, Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that he will seek for an early election on July 2 in his statement on Monday. This is his plan unless the senate agrees to pass contentious legislation by next month.
The announcement made the Prime Minister and the opposition clashed about his plan for the election. The opposition argues that Turnbull had effectively started off a 15-week election campaign. Key Senators are also talking down the prospects of legislation to have a construction industry watchdog getting majority support.
But the ostracized prime minister, who was replaced by Turnbull in September after two years in Power, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, claimed credit for the center-right government's main achievements. The achievement he was referring to included stopping asylum seekers from reaching Australia by boat, as claimed by Yahoo! News.
The free trade settlements between Australia and China, as well as other countries like Japan and South Korea are also included. "Fundamentally the Turnbull government is seeking election on the record of the Abbott government," Abbott expressed on Monday.
THE BIG STORY reported that the new Prime Minister noted that his administration was different from what Abbott had led. "The bottom line is there is continuity and there is change, and there are many policies that have been announced and many initiatives that have been undertaken that were either not policies or not being pursued by Mr. Abbott," Turnbull told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
However, the center-left Labor Party opposition bounded on the disagreement between the leader and his predecessor. The opposition leader Bill Shorten even mentioned that the decision of the Liberal Party was "at war with itself." "The truth of the matter is that Mr. Turnbull wants to have an early election on July 2, he doesn't have a plan for Australia, all he has is plan for his own re-election," Shorten also told the reporters.
Meanwhile, the government trailed the opposition in opinion polls until Turnbull became prime minister. But his popularity was diminished as observers have criticized his slow pace of reform of the government.
