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Julie Bishop quits as Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne takes over

The new foreign minister’s big challenge will be navigating a tricky relationship with China, Australia’s top trading partner

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Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop resigned from new Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Cabinet on Sunday. File photo: EPA
Agencies

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop resigned from new Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Cabinet on Sunday, two days after a bruising leadership battle that toppled former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and led to a major ministerial shake-up.

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.

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She had been foreign minister since 2013 and was replaced by former defence minister Marise Payne in the new Cabinet line-up announced by Morrison after Bishop resigned.

Morrison replaced Turnbull in a party-room vote after a week of political chaos in Canberra that marked the emergence of Australia’s sixth prime minister in less than 10 years.

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He took over as leader of the Liberal Party, the senior partner in a Liberal-National coalition that has consistently trailed the opposition Labor party in opinion polls in recent months.

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