Liberals warn internal disputes are overshadowing attacks on Labor

Liberal Party tensions have erupted in a dramatic partyroom showdown as Sussan Ley faces mounting pressure over her leadership amid frontbench resignations.

Liberal discontent over colleagues who are fueling infighting about the party’s direction under Opposition leader Sussan Ley has boiled over in a partyroom meeting where one MP took aim at Andrew Hastie.

Sources have confirmed Liberal MP Mary Aldred used the meeting in Canberra on Tuesday to voice her concern about members being critical of each other in public, and said she was disappointed in Mr Hastie, who quit the frontbench last week.

Scrutiny of the federal government’s handling of the return of ISIS brides to Australia and response to the Optus Triple Zero outage has taken a back seat to internal Liberal Party machinations in the wake of two frontbench departures in the past month.

Opposition leader Sussan Ley is preparing her second frontbench reshuffle. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

As the Coalition attempts to prosecute those issues when parliament resumes on Tuesday, Ms Ley is now also preparing her second shadow ministry reshuffle in as many months following the resignation of former home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie over what he claimed was discontent about not being able to “lead” immigration policy.

One Liberal MP said there was “frustration” at the timing of the resignation, which had once again “derailed” any focus on Labor as had happened last month with Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was dumped from the frontbench for failing to publicly back Ms Ley’s leadership.

Despite the discontent in some corners of the party with Ms Ley, who’s net approval rating slid to minus 20 in the latest Newspoll this week, multiple Liberals insisted there was no imminent threat to her leadership.

Another Liberal source said there were a handful of backbench “agitators” discussing “ruining her Christmas” by sowing discord about Ms Ley over the summer break, but insisted there was currently “no appetite” in the broader party room for a challenge.

Supporters of Mr Hastie on Monday hit back at reports former Liberal leader Peter Dutton laid significant blame at the West Australian MP for the party’s federal election defeat in May.

West Australian MP Andrew Hastie last week quit the Coalition frontbench. Picture: NewsWire/Philip Gostelow

One Liberal said the claims in the Nine newspapers Mr Dutton believed Mr Hastie was largely absent from media last term to the detriment of the party were “not a fair assessment”.

The co-chair of the Liberal Party’s election campaign review, Nick Minchin, told The Australian Mr Dutton avoided criticism of his shadow ministers during his verbal submission, but did not deny the former leader had scrutinised Mr Hastie’s role.

Victorian Senator James Paterson said it was “very unfortunate” if an account of Mr Dutton’s submission had been leaked.

“If it’s weaponise for internal purposes, that will undermine the trust and credibility of this review,” he said.

Mr Paterson said he did not see “any prospect” of a challenge to Ms Ley.

“My assessment is that Sussan has the strong and overwhelming support of the party room,” he said.

NSW Senator Maria Kovacic said she did not think any one individual was to “blame” for the Coalition’s election defeat.

“I think more broadly, when you have a result like the one that we did, there’s probably a lot of reflection for the whole team to have, not any particularly individual to … carry that load themselves,” she said.

Three Liberals in the party’s right said they were hopeful Ms Ley would elevate a member of their faction as a replacement for Mr Hastie’s shadow cabinet position in a reshuffle expected this weekend.

One said it was a “bad look” if Coalition defence spokesman Angus Taylor was the only right faction member on the frontbench in the House of Representatives.

Originally published as Liberals warn internal disputes are overshadowing attacks on Labor