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Scott Morrison was the immigration minister who restored control of Australia’s borders. He is now the prime minister who has lost control of Australia’s Parliament.
He has not lost the constitutional mandate to lead the government and he remains Prime Minister, but he is a diminished figure in a weakened government with a conditional mandate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
Morrison’s great loss was, paradoxically, on his greatest policy achievement, the handling of asylum seekers. This seems to affirm the adage that your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness.
Labor and the crossbench MPs who voted with it are claiming a moral victory because the parliamentary vote was designed to improve medical treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island."
