Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison is set to be the country's next prime minister, after incumbent Malcolm Turnbull was ousted on Friday.

It came after Morrison won a three-way battle for the Liberal Party leadership. Other contenders included former Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Morrison won 45 votes to 40 at the leadership meeting, according to local media.

Turnbull did not contest for the vote after it became clear that he had lost the support of majority of his party members.

Speaking to the media after being ousted, Turnbull spoke about the incidents that led to Morrison becoming the new prime minister.

"There was a determined insurgency from a number of people both in the party room and backed by powerful voices in the media ... to, if not bring down the government, certainly bring down my prime ministership," Turnbull said at a press conference.

He had narrowly survived a party leadership challenge against Dutton in a vote earlier this week. Since then, several senior ministers who supported Turnbull changed sides. The Liberal Party is a part of the ruling Liberal-National coalition government.

Faced with intense pressure to call for a second vote, Turnbull on Friday convened a party meeting after receiving a letter calling for a new leader that was signed by majority of the party members. He had previously said he would resign from parliament if he was ousted. That could potentially trigger a by-election ahead of the next federal election that needs to be held by the first half of 2019.