Ley FaceTimed dying mother night before winning leadership

New Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is promising not to stack her shadow cabinet with loyalists after a narrow victory over Angus Taylor that threatens ongoing division in Liberal ranks and a second leadership challenge later in the term.

Ley made her decision to run for leader last week just as her mother was moved into palliative care, and will now return to her mother’s bedside as the first woman to head the federal Liberal Party after Tuesday morning’s vote. She will now confront daunting policy and personnel challenges to reform the battered opposition, which is at risk of splitting from the Nationals over energy policy.

Sussan Ley with Ted O’Brien.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Ley, 63, defeated Taylor 29 votes to 25 after half a dozen undecided voters swung towards Ley, in part over their concern about the inexperience of Taylor’s running mate, maverick Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Despite withdrawing from the race for deputy once Taylor lost his ballot, Price told Sky News on Tuesday evening that “there would be many Australians” who wanted her to move to the lower house to become prime minister.

Asked if there was now rock solid support for Ley, she said: “That is the hope”. Price said she would personally remain loyal.

Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley and deputy leader Ted O’Brien after the leadership ballot.Credit: James Brickwood

An ugly leadership battle involving internal mudslinging on both sides was playing out as Ley held a FaceTime call with her mother, Angela Braybrooks, and a priest on Monday night, according to sources close to the new leader.

The former cabinet minister barely slept the night before Tuesday’s vote because she suspected her time with Braybrooks on Mother’s Day would be the last time.

The outcome of the leadership contest represented a victory for party moderates against Taylor’s Right faction. Ley promised to do her best to turn around the party’s standing with voters and “respect modern Australia”.

“We stood across polling booths across this country and saw the look on people’s faces as they came in, sadly, not to vote for us – they felt disappointed and let down,” she admitted.

“We understand that, and we must learn from that. And we must take the time to get it right.”

From left to right, MPs Dan Tehan, Zoe McKenzie, Ben Small, Mary Aldred, and Jane Hume.Credit: James Brickwood

After declaring “there won’t be a climate war” in the Coalition, Ley will hold talks in coming days with Nationals leader David Littleproud, who on Monday signalled the prospect of dumping the party’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

That pledge is core to the Liberal Party’s ability to convince city-based voters it is serious about climate change, but Littleproud may insist on dropping it from the Coalition agreement that binds the parties. Exiting that deal would cost Nationals shadow cabinet positions and higher salaries.

Senator Matt Canavan, who unsuccessfully challenged Littleproud’s leadership on Monday and campaigned against net zero, told this masthead: “I lost the battle, but net zero is mortally wounded, so mission accomplished.“

Ley was noncommittal about the climate target and nuclear energy, saying all policies were up for review.

Her boosters in the moderate wing of the party expect Ley will present as a more centrist figure with less focus than her predecessor on fighting cultural battles on issues such as Indigenous affairs and immigration.

After her Canberra press conference, Ley raced back to her mother’s Albury nursing home.

Ley’s deputy Ted O’Brien has told colleagues he wants to be the shadow treasurer, but decisions on the opposition frontbench are likely weeks away.

A cloud will hang over the party’s unity, as her opponents demand she pick her frontbench on merit rather than factional allegiance. This masthead reported last week that Ley was offering MPs, including her key ally Alex Hawke, as well as Jason Wood, Andrew Wallace and Scott Buchholz, promotions to win their votes.

Taylor’s camp was infuriated by the reports. Key supporters of the former shadow treasurer – whom Ley said would be offered a senior job – said the Right faction may move to undermine Ley if she only rewarded her backers.

Ley was forced to address the concerns in both her private remarks to MPs and in her later press conference on Tuesday.

“My shadow cabinet will include people who did support me in this room this morning, and people who did not,” she said. “Here in this party room only a couple of hours ago, I committed to my colleagues that there would be no captain’s calls from anywhere by me.”

Angus Taylor released a statement supporting Sussan Ley two hours after his defeat. Credit: James Brickwood

Another grievance of Taylor’s camp is that at least two senators whose terms end on July 1 – Hollie Hughes from NSW and Linda Reynolds from WA – voted for Ley. Had the vote taken place in July, Taylor would have had a better chance, as Hughes is being replaced by Jess Collins, who is close to Taylor.

Taylor released a statement after the vote calling for unity. “Sussan has led a remarkable life and becoming the first woman to lead the Liberal Party is a milestone for Sussan and our party,” he said.

Price said on Sky that the party could now have open debates on policy they did not have under Dutton, who shut down her call to make late-term abortion illegal.

O’Brien defeated surprise Right faction candidate for deputy Phillip Thompson, an up-and-coming Queensland MP, after Price pulled out of the race once Taylor, her running mate, lost.

Senator Jonathon Duniam, Northern Territory Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash enters the Liberal Party meeting to decide the party’s leadership. Credit: James Brickwood

Several MPs, unwilling to speak publicly about the leadership battle, said Taylor’s call to recruit Price to win over undecided voters had backfired. Some MPs who supported Taylor expressed concern days before Price’s recruitment was publicly revealed, warning her brand of conservatism might be a turnoff after Dutton was hurt by comparisons with Donald Trump.

“The great irony is Taylor lost the middle-ground MP in the party room by tacking to the right, just like we as a party lose votes in the centre when we go too hard to the right,” one MP said.

Ley pitched herself as a centrist reformer even though she was a minister in the governments of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison. She also served as deputy leader under Dutton but the pair were not close and she had less influence in the party than previous deputies. She was forced to stand down as health minister in 2017 after she purchased an apartment on the Gold Coast while on a taxpayer-funded trip.

She was the shadow minister for women before the election, at which women again failed to support the opposition in large numbers.

Ley, the member for Farrer in NSW, which runs along the Victorian border, was backed by party moderates, but she is personally associated with the small centre-right faction run by Hawke and formerly associated with prime minister Scott Morrison.

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