James Campbell: Sussan Ley’s 29 to 25 victory margin does not bode well for leadership of Liberal Party

The wafer-thin margin of Sussan Ley’s win – 29 to 25 – shows the Liberal Party is a long, long way off finding common ground about what went wrong or how to fix it.

It would be nice to be able to say Sussan Ley’s win over Angus Taylor shows the Liberal Party has come to some agreement about what went wrong ten days ago and how they are going fix things but I’m afraid it just ain’t so.

Depending on where you sit her election is either a win for common sense and a rejection of the extremism that has brought the party to its current predicament, or a vote for more of the ‘Labor-lite’ mediocrity that failed Peter Dutton so badly.

Either way, the wafer-thin margin of her victory – 29 to – 25 – shows the Liberals are a long, long way away from reaching any sort of consensus about the way forward.

It was as one MP put it ahead of this vote, ‘a bloody awful choice’.

On paper Ley looks like a good option.

Unlike most of the careerists we send to Canberra, she’s actually seen a bit of the world having worked as an air traffic controller, stock mustering pilot, shearers’ cook, a farmer and a public servant.

At 63-years-old she is a mother of three and grandmother of six, went to uni as a mature-aged student and now has three degrees.

Sussan Ley has become the first woman to lead the Liberal Party. Picture: David Beach

The problem many MPs will have had with Ley – even some who voted for her – is not her CV or her communication skills – which unlike Dutton’s are excellent – it’s her judgement.

If you hang around in politics as long as Ley has done – she was first elected in 2001 — you will inevitably end up having to take all sorts of different positions as necessity dictates.

But even so, Ley’s evolution has been remarkable.

Today she is a staunch supporter of Israel and critic of Labor’s equivocal support for the Jewish state.

But back in 2008 she marked its 60th birthday by describing its creation as “a ‘homeland’ cheque” written by the victors in WWII – including Australia “to cover the sins of the Holocaust and centuries of antisemitism in Europe.”

Ley’s view has similarly evolved over live sheep exports which she once sponsored a private members’ bill to ban but which she was defending by the time Labor actually got around to winding it down.

No one would ever accuse Ley of being right-winger but the question of whether she is a centrist or a left-winger – in the Liberal context I should add, not the real world – is an open one.

What to do with Angus Taylor will be a key problem for Ley. Picture: Monique Harmer

Her first task will be to pick a shadow cabinet which is when we will get a look at the IOUs she had to sign to get the votes she needed.

Her real problem however will be what to do with Angus Taylor.

She could of course leave him where he is but only if her deputy Ted O’Brien is prepared to give up the chance to be shadow treasurer.

If O’Brien is not, then Taylor must be found something commensurate with his seniority and abilities which isn’t going to be easy, or he might just choose to sit on the backbench, waiting no doubt for Ley to stumble.

Her next decision will be what to do with Dutton’s nuclear policy, for which her deputy was a cheerleader.

Many of the people who voted for Ley will be hoping – no, expecting – her to dump it.

But without nuclear energy there is still no way to keep the Nats – and some Liberals too – in the cart on Net-Zero.

We should wish Ley luck, she’s going to need it.

Originally published as James Campbell: Sussan Ley’s 29 to 25 victory margin does not bode well for leadership of Liberal Party