Scott Morrison’s party moves to stop revolving door of prime ministers in Australia

Australia’s prime minister on Monday moved to end a series of rolling leadership coups that have battered his party’s reputation and left it hobbled ahead of next year’s election.

Hastily announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison at an occasionally boisterous late-night press conference, the new Liberal Party rule makes it much harder to oust a sitting leader.

“This has been the great anguish for the Australian people as they’ve seen this happen in both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra of the revolving door of prime ministers.

“They’re sick of it and we’re sick of it and it has to stop, and that’s why we’ve put this rule in place.”

The new rule, decided at a snap Liberals meeting in the capital, will apply to a Liberal leader after he or she has won an election.