Malcolm Turnbull holds the line on climate policy and marriage equality plebiscite

Extract from The Guardian

New prime minister says ‘policies will change in the light of changed conditions’ as Labor presses him on his support for unpopular measures

Malcolm Turnbull takes his first question time as the prime minister on Tuesday. Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian

Daniel Hurst Political correspondent

@danielhurstbne

Tuesday 15 September 2015 18.23 AEST

Malcolm Turnbull has defended the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy and having a public vote on marriage equality after the next election, as he came under pressure to explain his U-turns on his first day as prime minister.

Turnbull, who was sworn in as Australia’s 29th prime minister shortly before parliamentary question time on Tuesday, thanked the person he had ousted, Tony Abbott, for “his leadership and his service over many, many years” and indicated he would announce a new ministry later this week or early next week.

Abbott, who said earlier that he would not seek to undermine the new leader upon his return to the backbench, was not in the chamber to hear the tributes at the beginning of question time.

Turnbull told his colleagues, at a Coalition joint party room meeting, that he would seek to restore an open, consultative model for the prime minister’s office of the type that existed under the long-serving leader John Howard.

Malcolm Turnbull sworn in as 29th Australian prime minister. Link to video

The new prime minister appointed the former Howard operative Tony Nutt as his director of transition and named the head of the communications department, Drew Clarke, as his acting chief of staff. There were no immediate ministerial resignations, even though there has been intense speculation about the future of Joe Hockey as treasurer. The social services minister, Scott Morrison, has been widely tipped as being in line for the role after Turnbull criticised the government’s performance in selling its economic messages.

The defence minister, Kevin Andrews, who was a key supporter of Abbott and is from the party’s conservative wing, signalled he would like to remain in the role given the need for stability at this “very significant time for defence”.

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, who was reportedly a contender for the defence portfolio, said he had “always had a keen interest in history and military matters”. Pyne is from the manufacturing state of South Australia, where the government’s popularity has collapsed amid suggestions work on the next fleet of submarines could be done overseas.

There is also speculation that women will be promoted in the reshuffle. The attorney general, George Brandis, said his colleagues accepted there would be a reshuffle and he would be happy to continue in his present role “but of course that’s entirely a matter for the prime minister”.

Brandis told the ABC’s 7.30 program he had supported Turnbull because the Coalition had been at real risk of losing next year’s election to the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, who could “trash the China free trade agreement”.

But Shorten sought to reach out to Turnbull to resolve the free trade issue on Tuesday, writing to the new prime minister seeking a meeting to discuss Labor’s proposals for jobs safeguards. Shorten said he believed “complementary safeguards” could be formulated without delaying the agreement’s timely implementation, and it would be best to find a bipartisan approach.Turnbull faced an early embarrassment on Tuesday after three Nationals senators crossed the floor to support a symbolic Greens motion advocating changes to competition laws, and two others abstained from the vote.

Labor and the Liberals did not support the motion, which was about the introduction of a so-called “effects test” backed by small business but opposed by big business. The issue had previously divided Abbott’s cabinet, which deferred consideration of the issue two weeks ago.

In question time, Labor targeted Turnbull for his previously expressed support for “every single” measure in the poorly received 2014 budget. Turnbull fired back by telling Shorten that the cabinet system of government required ministers to support the decisions.

Turnbull left the door open to considering policy changes but said he would not unilaterally disavow measures because he would “lead a traditional cabinet government”.

“Policies will change in the light of changed conditions, of course they will,” Turnbull said.

“But we stand by every decision we make, the cabinet stands by every decision we make, and as we revise them and improve them in the light of experience we will stand by those, too.”

The prime minister made it clear that people should not expect any immediate changes in two policy areas about which he has previously been outspoken: climate policy and marriage equality. This reflects the Coalition agreement the Nationals leader, Warren Truss, negotiated with him on Tuesday.

Turnbull, who previously supported emissions trading and said in 2010 that “having the government pick projects for subsidy is a recipe for fiscal recklessness on a grand scale”, has now locked in behind the use of the government’s emissions reduction fund.

Turnbull said the first fund auction in April was “a resounding success” and insisted his remarks were “about different proposals years ago”. He said the budget funding for the policy pursued by the environment minister, Greg Hunt, was capped so “it cannot result in an unlimited amount of fiscal commitment”.

“It doesn’t matter how you cut emissions as long as they are cut,” Turnbull said.

Turnbull also backed the government’s “very substantial” previously announced target to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions so they are 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Greens MP Adam Bandt accused Turnbull of being “beholden to the hardliners in your ranks” on climate change.

Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, also tried to pressure Turnbull to repeat his recently stated support for Coalition MPs to be granted a free vote in the parliament on marriage equality legislation .

But Turnbull locked in behind Abbott’s policy of a “people’s vote” some time in the next parliamentary term, fulfilling yet another element of his agreement with the Nationals, despite his earlier suggestions such a vote should be held sooner rather than later.

“Historically issues of this type have been resolved in parliament by free vote and the honourable member is correct in referring to that,” he said.

“Another way of dealing with this is by vote of the people. And the Coalition, our government, has decided that the resolution of this matter will be determined by a vote of the people, all the people, via a plebiscite, to be held after the next election.”

When the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, accused him of selling out, Turnbull rallied the Coalition backbench by denouncing the “utter failure of the opposition to approach issues other than in a thoroughly ideological way”. Turnbull said: “Why is the opposition afraid of the people having a vote? Why don’t they want all Australians having a vote? There is no greater virtue in a free vote here or a plebiscite. They are each means of resolving the matter - one, I grant you is more expensive but, nonetheless, it is a very legitimate and democratic way of dealing with it.”

A snap SMS poll by Roy Morgan on Tuesday showed strong early support for Turnbull’s leadership. About 70% of the 1,200 respondents thought Turnbull would make a better prime minister than Shorten, while just 24% backed Shorten.

Ministers who publicly supported Abbott before the leadership vote sought to draw a line under the upheaval, insisting the job of government continued.

Hockey put on a brave face in parliament amid persistent speculation about Morrison being in line for his job. The treasurer said he would introduce legislation to the parliament on Wednesday “to go after multinationals not paying their fair share of tax”.

Referring to Turnbull by his electorate title rather than as the prime minister, Hockey said: “The honourable member for Wentworth is perfectly entitled to make a statement, as he did yesterday, about how we can do better and you know what, we can always do better. We can always do better. But I tell you what, we’re doing a hell of a lot better than the Labor party.”

Voters at Bondi Beach welcome Malcolm Turnbull to the top job. Link to video

In the Senate, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said he was “looking forward to working with the prime minister in building Australia’s stronger economic and fiscal foundations for the future”.

Another Abbott backer and the leader of the government in the Senate, Eric Abetz, said his hands were clean. “Can I indicate that we serve at the pleasure of the leader and we do so on a daily basis irrespective of who might be leader,” Abetz said.

“The king is dead, long live the king, and the prime minister has our support.”

Labor sources said they would have preferred to face Abbott at the next general election, due in 2016, but had been prepared for the leadership change and that they would attack Turnbull on the basis of arrogance, personal ambition and selling out his principles.

The Labor party wasted no time rolling out a television advertisement to air in Western Australia before Saturday’s Canning byelection, highlighting his emphatic support for Abbott’s “unfair” budget measures.

In a speech to Labor colleagues on Tuesday, Shorten said the Liberals had “panicked” and elected a new leader but “it’s the same old stuff rebadged as new”.

“Australians understand the thing about Malcolm is it’s always about Malcolm,” he said.

“We have seen off one bad Liberal prime minister and we will do this again...If you want a new direction in this country you’ve got to vote for a new government: a Shorten Labor government.”