Banks announces move to crossbench as prime minister says he will deliver ‘surplus budget’ in April

Labor is working to build the numbers to refer the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, to the high court before parliament rises for Christmas, with the government also meeting crossbenchers in an attempt to frustrate the sortie.

Kerryn Phelps, who is yet to declare a position on the referral, met with the attorney general, Christian Porter, and the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, on Tuesday as part of settling her stance, and Cathy McGowan has signalled to colleagues she’s reassessing in the light of Tuesday’s events.

The positioning follows a decision by the Victorian Liberal Julia Banks to quit the Morrison government and sit on the crossbench, undercutting Scott Morrison’s efforts to stabilise the government and project a plan for the next election.

The Victorian Liberal, who has been signalling she might run as an independent at the next federal election since the August leadership implosion, told parliament on Tuesday she would shift to the crossbench.

With arm-twisting on Dutton under way, the leader of the government in the House, Christopher Pyne, insisted Dutton did not have a section 44 problem. He told Sky News the government wanted to move on because the public were “sick of that and want us to get on with the job”. Pyne noted Phelps, the new member for Wentworth, “potentially might have a problem” with her eligibility, but said the government didn’t intend to pursue that.

Earlier, Banks delivered her statement at the same time Morrison was attempting to plot the Coalition’s way forward.

In simultaneous announcements, Morrison told reporters the government would deliver “a surplus budget” on 2 April, confirming his plans for a May 2019 election – and Banks delivered her bombshell in the chamber.

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Banks’s profound disaffection has been obvious since conservative colleagues moved against the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull but she did not telegraph her intentions to government colleagues during the regular Coalition party room on Tuesday. Intimates and some crossbenchers were aware of her plan.

Banks confirmed her move in a short, visceral statement to the chamber on Tuesday. She said the move against Turnbull had been “led by members of the reactionary right wing … aided by many MPs trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for their individual promotion, preselection endorsement or silence”.

“Their actions were undeniably for themselves, for their position in the party, their power, their personal ambition, not for the Australian people we represent, not for what people voted for in the 2016 election, stability, and disregarding the teamwork and unity delivered big success.”

Banks told parliament her “sensible centrist values, belief in economic responsibility and focus on always putting the people first and acting in the nation’s interest” had remained constant but those values were now incompatible with the Liberal party.

“The Liberal party has changed, largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing who talk about and to themselves rather than listening to the people,” she told the chamber.

She said moving to the crossbench to become an independent would allow her to continue to put the people before the party and “act in the nation’s interest constructively”.

Banks said she would guarantee supply and confidence, and would make a decision in the new year “about my career path”.

The loss of another number in the House of Representatives intensifies the difficulty Morrison faces in managing parliamentary sittings between now and the next election.

The departures may not stop with Banks. Another Liberal, the outspoken conservative Craig Kelly, has signalled he could follow suit in the event he loses preselection for the Sydney seat of Hughes.

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And another Sydney Liberal, Craig Laundy, who was in the House for Banks’s speech on Tuesday, has also spoken candidly about the party drifting dangerously away from its moderate supporters. His intentions for the next election are not yet clear.

Pyne confirmed on Tuesday the government would schedule 17 sitting weeks for 2019, weeks ahead of the budget it planned to deliver on April 2. “We don’t have anything to fear from the parliament,” he said.

While Pyne cracked hardy, the new sitting calendar shows, however, that only two sitting weeks are scheduled before the budget is handed down on 2 April, which reflects the government’s difficulties in managing the chamber in minority.

Pyne characterised Banks as a friend, but he was caustic about her decision to leave the Liberals. He said she would have to “take the opprobrium” associated with her decision and “bear the consequences of her decision”.

Banks’ friend and the former deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop struck a different tone. She said she was “saddened that Julia Banks had reached a point that she felt that she could no longer continue in the Liberal party”.

Bishop said her departure highlighted “the fact the Liberal party needs and should have more female representatives”.

An absolute majority of 76 is required to carry a vote of no-confidence in the government but a simple majority is sufficient for a high court referral after procedures were adjusted at the end of last year.

Labor will move against Dutton in the event it gets the numbers. Right now, that is unclear. Banks is yet to state her position.

The huge swing to Labor in traditional heartland Liberal suburbs in the Victorian election last weekend has rattled government MPs, and prompted several to speak out, urging the government to present a more moderate face to the voters or risk electoral annihilation next year.

Banks has been outspoken about climate change and the treatment of refugees since the leadership change.

The Labor leader Bill Shorten had his own difficulties on Tuesday. Emma Husar, the member for Lindsay, who had indicated previously she would not re-contest her seat said on Tuesday she’d changed her mind.

NSW Labor has already moved on, opening up nominations for the western Sydney seat, and there is no prospect of her being endorsed as the Labor candidate. Husar has threatened to run as an independent.