Leadership coups have become an increasingly common feature of Australian politics, but the electoral results aren’t always encouraging

Malcolm Turnbull’s defeat of Tony Abbott was the seventy-second leadership coup among major political parties at state or federal level since 1970 – a remarkable figure indicative of an underlying volatility in Australian politics. On each occasion the leader was either defeated by colleagues in a party room vote, or resigned under duress when it became clear that continuing in the role was no longer viable.

As the table below shows, these coups have become increasingly common. In the 1960s, there was none; in the 1970s, just ten; and in the 1980s, eighteen. The figure dipped slightly to thirteen in the 1990s, but in the fifteen years of this century, thirty-one leaders have been felled, or an average of two a year…

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