Trial-by-combat-style Australian politics make for high drama

Malcolm Turnbull challenges Tony Abbott and wins

The Westminster parliamentary democracy is the world's most widely used system of government but it has its quirks.

What makes the Australian system unique is that Members of Parliament from the Prime Minister's own party can oust him or her. They have far more power than in the UK and Canada, the leader can toss them out and changing leadership is a process takes weeks or month.

In Australia, the drama goes down in hours. In what's called a 'leadership spill' a member of the party can challenge the leader to a vote in a pseudo trial by combat that goes to a secret ballot.

Today, Malcolm Turnbull declared the challenge at 4 pm locally and members of the party started voting at 9:15 pm. He ousted Abbott before 10 pm.

To add financial insult to political injury, Abbott's loss comes four days before he became entitled to his AUS$250,000 a year Prime Ministerial pension for holding office for two years. Assuming Abbott lives 30 years, that's a $7.5 million stab in the back.