Liberal Member Quits Party Leaving Gov't With One Seat Majority

Earlier on 23 Feb Craig Kelly, Liberal Party member for the Hughes division, quit the party leaving the governing Liberal-National coalition with a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives.

• Kelly stated that he will sit as a crossbencher but support the gov't of PM Scott Morrison in a confidence-and-supply agreement.
• He resigned following growing antipathy in the moderate wings of the centre-right Liberal Party to his outspoken and controversial views on energy policy, climate change, and unproven COVID-19 treatments. Recently his comments progressed to expressing scepticism about the rollout of Australia's COVID-19 vaccine programme. Kelly stated his resignation will enable him to continue to speak freely.
• Morrison was quick to state that Kelly's resignation will have no impact on the functioning of gov't. Nevertheless, Kelly's support for all gov't measures can now no longer be expected as a matter of fact.
• The Guardian reports that Kelly stated he intends to run in the 2022 federal election as an independent, although this has yet to be confirmed. His Hughes division in the southwest Sydney suburbs has been held by the Liberals since 1996. In the 2019 election Kelly held the seat with a 19.9% majority over the ALP candidate in the 2-party preferred vote.