00:00The King of Thailand has sworn in a new cabinet in a reshuffle that will see a third person in a week
00:06take on the role as the country's Prime Minister.
00:08The top job plunged into chaos back on Tuesday when the Constitutional Court
00:13suspended Prime Minister Pai Thong Thang Shinawatra pending an ethics probe which could take months.
00:19Well let's explain it all for you. We're going to cross to Bangkok, talk to our correspondent Mac Hunt who joins us from there.
00:25Matt, let's talk about what happened earlier in the week first of all and what happened exactly to the Prime Minister.
00:33Yeah Stuart, so just a couple of days ago the Prime Minister was temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court
00:39following an ethics complaint that stems from a leaked phone call between her and Cambodian leader Hun Sen
00:46and on that phone call the Prime Minister expressed what appeared to be some disagreement with the Thai army
00:52who is now managing a territory dispute at the Thai-Cambodian border
00:57and the implosion that that caused here in the country has been seen over the last couple of days.
01:03Now she's been suspended but in following the aftermath of that phone call
01:08several complaints were lodged against her and the one accepted by the Constitutional Court is just one of them.
01:13But inside of all of that there is the feeling that she essentially is not, she said things that were a threat to Thailand's national security
01:25and do not uphold Thailand's sovereignty which caused her largest coalition partner to exit her government and join the opposition.
01:33And this has all been mounting on top of the general lack of public trust in this Prime Minister since she entered the government house ten months ago.
01:41And so last weekend thousands of people came out here in Bangkok to demand her resignation
01:47and this is the same group that has toppled governments of her family in the past.
01:53They're not currently asking for a coup.
01:56They've actually been quite clear that that's not what they want but they most certainly do not want to see this Prime Minister in the current government
02:03and they've accepted that this is a temporary solution and they're holding off and going back into the streets
02:08but they are relying on non-democratic institutions to, as they say, hopefully remove her from the government.
02:15So what's actually happened today then, as it were? What does it mean for the new government?
02:22In a very Thai way, the situation today is so complex.
02:26The day that Pei Thang Khan was removed from office, she was also appointed as a minister to another cabinet.
02:33So she was actually sworn in as the Minister of Culture today.
02:37And the caretaker Prime Minister passed along the role to Pung Thanh Muti Yitai, who is now the acting Prime Minister.
02:46And the government is essentially collapsing, as far as I can tell.
02:49It is hobbling forward.
02:50As previously mentioned, her largest coalition partner exited and has become the opposition.
02:56So her lead in the parliament is razor thin.
02:59But in terms of numbers, that's just one aspect.
03:03The other aspect is that she has completely failed the public in terms of trust.
03:08Her polling numbers are actually sub-10%.
03:10And it seems that the people that she used to keep close in her alliance are now actively campaigning for her removal because she simply will not resign.
03:22And the options forward at this point are most people are calling for an election.
03:28They want her to resolve the parliament and resign and have a new election.
03:32And it doesn't seem that there is a way forward for this prime minister or this government, to be honest.
