In Australian politics, a leadership spill is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for re-election. A spill may involve all leadership positions, or just the leader. Where a rival to the existing leader calls for a spill, it may also be called a leadership challenge. When a leadership vacancy arises due to the voluntary resignation or death of the incumbent, the resulting leadership election is not a leadership spill. Therefore, the 1968 Liberal Party of Australia leadership election after the disappearance of Harold Holt was not a leadership spill, despite the contest involving four candidates. In Australian English the use of the word "spill" in this context has a long history, with its first recorded appearance traced to a Canberra Times article dated 20 August 1945. A leadership spill may result in a new hierarchy, or may confirm the status quo. If the party in question is in government, the election of a new leader will result in a new Prime Minister, Premier or Chief Minister; if the party is the opposition, the election of a new leader will result in a new Opposition Leader. There were 72 leadership spills between 1970 and 2015; the phenomenon became increasingly common in the early 21st century. None occurred in the 1960s, 10 in the 1970s, 18 in the 1980s, 13 in the 1990s, and 31 between 2000 and 2015. Spills are three times more likely to occur when a party is in opposition compared to when it holds government. The frequent leadership spills and political instability in the 21st century – which saw five changes of Prime Ministers between 2010 and 2018 – has led to Australia being dubbed "coup capital of the democratic world".
Process
In the Westminster system of government, the leader of the party which forms government becomes the Prime Minister, while the leader of the largest party not in government becomes leader of the Opposition. Contenders for the role of leader of a major party usually come from the cabinet or shadow cabinet. A leadership spill occurs when a member or members of the parliamentary party feel that the leader is taking the party in an undesirable direction or is simply not delivering on promises made to those who elected the leader, and does not have the numbers to back his or her position. A spill may be triggered by consistently poor opinion polls. A spill can be initiated by the party leader in office, usually in the hope of gaining a fresh mandate to quell dissenting voices in the party. It may occur at any time, leaving the person in the leadership position always 'on notice'.
Federal ALP changes
Following his return to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in 2013, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sought changes to the party's rules so that leadership spills would be more difficult to launch in future. The changes included the requirement for 75% support within the Australian Labor Party Caucus for a special leadership ballot against a sitting Labor prime minister, or 60% against an opposition leader. Another change was that future leadership ballots would include equally weighted voting rights between the caucus and party rank and file members with each block being counted separately and worth 50% of the total. The rule that a Labor prime minister can only be removed if 75 per cent of MPs agree to force a ballot is a caucus-approved rule and was not included in the 2018 National Platform.
Following the oustings of two Liberal Prime Ministers in 3 years, Scott Morrison, who won the leadership spill of 24 August 2018 introduced a new threshold to trigger a Liberal Party leadership change in government, requiring two-thirds of the partyroom vote to trigger a spill motion. The change was introduced at an hour long party room meeting on the evening of 3 December 2018. Morrison said the changes, which were drafted with feedback from former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, would only apply to leaders who lead the party to victory at a federal election.
Impact
Historically, a governing party's replacement of its leader fails to improve its electoral fortunes. Across state and federal politics between 1970 and 2014, over 90% of governing parties that replaced their leader lost their majority at the subsequent election. The chances of success are higher when the party is in opposition, leading to success at the subsequent election about 50% of the time.
Notable spill motions
The following spill motions occurred during a parliamentary term, rather than in the aftermath of an election loss. Colours denote the party holding the leadership spill motion. Blue represents the Liberal Party, red the Labor Party, and green the National Party.
An episode of the AmericanTV series Madam Secretary, The Common Defense featured a fictional Australian Prime Minister and one of the main characters Jay Whitman commented that Australia throws Prime Ministers out like confetti. The episode was originally aired on March 24, 2019 and it is an allusion to the real life frequency of Prime Ministers between 2010 and 2018 as a result of leadership spills against the sitting Prime Minister.
