PERSON: Scott Morrison

Prime Minister

Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician serving as the 30th and current Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party since 24 August 2018. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2007, representing the Division of Cook in New South Wales.

Morrison was born in Sydney and studied economic geography at the University of New South Wales. He worked as director of the New Zealand Office of Tourism and Sport from 1998 to 2000 and was managing director of Tourism Australia from 2004 to 2006. Morrison was state director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004 and was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 2007 federal election. He was appointed to the opposition frontbench after the 2010 election.

Following the Coalition’s victory at the 2013 election, Morrison was appointed Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in the Abbott Government. In that capacity he was responsible for implementing Operation Sovereign Borders, one of the Coalition’s flagship policies. In a December 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Morrison was instead made Minister for Social Services. He was promoted to Treasurer in September 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as prime minister.

In August 2018, Peter Dutton challenged Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party, due to dissatisfaction from the party’s conservative wing. Turnbull defeated Dutton in a leadership ballot, but tensions continued to mount and the party voted in favour of holding a second ballot; Turnbull chose not to be a candidate. In the second vote, Morrison emerged as a compromise candidate, defeating Dutton and Julie Bishop to become leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister.

— Wikipedia