Ley’s first shadow ministry is on the mark. But now the hard work starts

Sussan Ley has finally stamped her authority on a much-diminished federal opposition, naming nine new members to her shadow cabinet and rewarding supporters and fellow moderates with roles on her frontbench.

Ley had assistance from voters in clearing out some of the familiar faces – Peter Dutton, David Coleman, Michael Sukkar and Perin Davey lost their seats in parliament – but she has not hesitated to go further.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud address the media at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Ley and her team could find no space at the top table for former shadow cabinet members Jane Hume, conservative rising star Claire Chandler, former education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson – who has few allies in the party room – and Nationals turncoat Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who has been demoted to the outer shadow ministry.

The appointment of Price to the outer ministry is particularly apposite as the Trump-friendly “Make Australia Great Again” senator will be bound by shadow ministerial solidarity and unable to freelance outside her defence industry portfolio.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has, as expected, ensured that his great rival and predecessor Barnaby Joyce was dumped, while Darren Chester returns to his former gig of veterans’ affairs.

The newly minted opposition leader had an extra week to consider how to assemble her frontbench team because of the quickie Coalition split. The cracks have been papered over for now, but divisions are certain to re-emerge when parliament returns and debate resumes on the giant, unresolved net zero fault line that divides the Coalition.

For the most part, Ley has made wise choices. Henderson made a lot of noise but achieved very little in the previous parliament. Hume, fairly or unfairly, is still wearing a decent chunk of the blame for the catastrophic end-work-from-home policy but she, along with Chandler, is likely to return to the frontbench in future.

The net result is two fewer women in the 23-member shadow cabinet, though this is offset by the Liberals finally promoting a woman to the leadership.

Among the changes and promotions, Michaelia Cash is a surprise choice for shadow minister for foreign affairs, given the tempered language required in the portfolio – not something the hard-charging and combative West Australian is known for.

Many of Ley’s allies and backers are big winners, including NSW factional boss Alex Hawke, who returns from three years in the wilderness to take over the industry and innovation portfolio, and free-market mods Andrew Bragg and Tim Wilson, who move up and into shadow cabinet as spokesmen for housing, homelessness and deregulation, and industrial relations and small business.

SA Liberal Kerrynne Liddle leapfrogs Price and enters shadow cabinet, James McGrath claims special minister of state and shadow minister for urban infrastructure – a clear statement of intent that Ley will fight for metropolitan seats – while principled moderate Julian Leeser returns as shadow attorney-general and shadow spokesman for the arts.

Senior conservatives including Angus Taylor (defence), Andrew Hastie (home affairs), Jonno Duniam (education) and James Paterson (finance) have been accommodated in a shadow ministry that includes 42 out of 70 Coalition MPs and senators. Sixty per cent of the opposition has a shadow ministry gig.

Ley’s statement of intent that she will pursue a more centrist path than Dutton extends to her decision to dump her predecessor’s Elon Musk-imitating department of government efficiency, her careful praise for public servants – rather than demonising them as wastrels – as well as in the promotion of a phalanx of new assistant ministers from her own moderate faction, including Zoe McKenzie, Dave Sharma, Maria Kovacic and not-quite-elected-yet Bradfield candidate Gisele Kapterian.

The two hardest jobs after Ley’s own leading a shattered opposition have been handed to new shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien and the new shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction (the words climate change have been dropped) Dan Tehan.

O’Brien, more of a quiet persuader than a forceful presence like his predecessor, Angus Taylor, must stitch together a credible narrative on the economy for the Liberals to make any gains.

Tehan, a genial MP from regional Victoria, has the near-impossible task of landing some kind of deal between bitterly divided climate change believers and deniers in the Coalition and must surely be preparing for the Nationals to demand the opposition drop its support for net zero emissions.

Dutton’s shadow ministry had too many passengers and too few senior shadows able to articulate a clear vision to voters.

Ley has hit the reset button hard to underline the break with Dutton. Now the hard work starts.

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