CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – A new Australian deputy prime minister has been appointed after his predecessor quit over a sexual harassment allegation.
Lawmakers in the Nationals party elected Michael McCormack as their leader on Monday. The junior coalition partner’s former leader Barnaby Joyce resigned Friday as both party leader and a Cabinet minister.
Joyce did not resign from Parliament, ensuring that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s single-seat majority in the House of Representatives is maintained.
McCormack is a former veterans affairs minister. The rural-focused Nationals’ leader now automatically becomes Turnbull’s deputy under their coalition agreement with the prime minister’s conservative Liberal Party.
McCormack was later sworn in as deputy prime minister as well as minister for infrastructure and transport, portfolios that Joyce had held.
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