New Australian opposition leader in parliament

Updated September 16, 2008 17:52:40

Malcolm Turnbull replaced Brendan Nelson as leader of the federal Opposition. [AAP]

The new federal Opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has led the coalition in Parliament for the first time, after narrowly beating Brendan Nelson in a leadership ballot on Tuesday morning.

The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, congratulated Mr Turnbull and says he looks forward to working together.

"As much as is possible in this great and robust democracy of ours on a bipartisan basis, I'm fully mindful of the fact there are probably a few things we will probably disagree on," he said.

Mr Rudd paid his respects to Brendan Nelson.

Republican welcome

The Australian Republican Movement has welcomed the election of Malcolm Turnbull as federal Liberal Leader.

Mr Turnbull is a former chair of the movement and campaigned in favour of a 'yes' vote in the 1999 referendum.

The current chair of the Republican movement, Michael Keating says Mr Turnbull's election as Opposition leader shows it's time to put a referendum back on the political agenda.

"We now have a situation where both the leaders of both the main parties in Federal parliament are avowed Republicans and of course we recently had the newly appointed Chief Justice and I think the new Liberal leader even in Western Australia on the weekend - all of these people are Republicans," he said.