The former Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, has said that he will be leaving parliament in order to seek employment in the private sector.
From 2018 until 2022, Mr. Morrison, a conservative who was elected to the position for the first time in 2007, served as the head of the nation.
In addition to overseeing Australia's reaction to the epidemic and the Aukus defense accord, he was entangled in a historic scandal for having covertly appointed himself to various ministerial positions while he was serving as Prime Minister.
"The time has come for me to return to private life," he stated publicly on Tuesday.
"After having served in the parliament for more than sixteen years, including almost four as Prime Minister during a very challenging time for our country, now is the time to move on," he stated in a prepared statement.
In order to concentrate on things pertaining to security in the Indo-Pacific region, Mr. Morrison announced that he will now take on "strategic advisory roles" across Asia.
Being a fervent Christian, he expressed his excitement about "looking forward to being more active" in his church while at the same time spending time with his family.
After suffering a devastating election defeat at the hands of Labor's Anthony Albanese in 2022, during which his party lost 18 seats, Mr. Morrison's departure has been anticipated for a considerable considerable amount of time.
It is widely believed that the reputation of Australia as a climate laggard was a significant contributor to the downfall of his government. Voters favored candidates who were committed to more aggressive reductions in emissions.
Because of the secret powers he had granted himself during the epidemic, he was censured by the Australian parliament later in 2022, making him the first former prime minister to be censured by the Australian parliament.
Mr. Morrison stated that his choice to designate himself the joint minister for health, finance, treasury, and home affairs was in line with the "extraordinary times" that the nation was going through at the time.
According to the findings of the study, his appointments were legitimate, and he only made use of his additional powers once.
During his tenure as Prime Minister, Mr. Morrison's relationship with China, which is Australia's most important trading partner, was particularly tense.
His administration was the driving force behind calls for an international probe into the origins of Covid, which resulted in a trade conflict that was tit-for-tat and a diplomatic freeze that lasted for years.
As part of a strategic shift, Mr. Morrison shifted his attention to strengthening Australia's security alliances, assisting in the formation of the Quad cooperation with India, Japan, and the United States, and signing the Aukus nuclear submarine contract with the United Kingdom and the United States.
The 55-year-old individual first came to the notice of the general public in the year 2013, when he was promoted to cabinet as the minister of immigration and led Operation Sovereign Borders, which was responsible for strengthening Australia's controversial policy regarding asylum seekers.
In the years that followed, he held the positions of minister of social services and treasurer before taking over as leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister after Malcolm Turnbull. Mr. Morrison is renowned for defying the polls in order to win the federal election in 2019.
After a decade of political leadership problems in both main parties, which resulted in the overthrow of governments, he became the first prime minister to serve a full term since John Howard in 2007.