Liberal Party leadership contest: Everything you need to know

A scant Liberal Party room will elect its next leader on Tuesday in what is expected to be a tight battle decided by a handful of votes.

Deputy leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor have both announced their candidacy for the job and are trying to shore up support. Re-elected Goldstein MP Tim Wilson was mulling a tilt at the job after ousting teal Zoe Daniel, but has ruled himself out of contention.

With the party’s future on the line, how do each of these potential leaders compare?

Angus Taylor

Taylor has said the party needs to “regroup, rebuild and get back into the fight” and has recruited Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to run as his deputy.

Taylor served as energy and industry minister in the Morrison government.

Before entering parliament in 2013, the 58-year-old worked as a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes scholar. Former prime minister Tony Abbott backed the Taylor-Price ticket on Sunday.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor.Credit: Joe Armao

Seat: Hume. Taylor extended his margin in Hume, which stretches from the southwest fringe of Sydney south past Goulburn and out to Boorowa in the NSW Hilltops. It has been held by a Coalition MP since 1974.

Faction: Right.

Strengths: A Rhodes scholar with an economics degree and a former energy and industry minister. Had a swing towards him in his seat. His controversial deputy pick, Senator Jacinta Price, is a proven fundraiser for the party. He has been backed by former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Weaknesses: As shadow treasurer, Taylor has been blamed by fellow party members for the absence of economic policies during the campaign, and his political retail skills have been questioned. He is closely associated with Dutton and the disastrous election. Price is known to court controversy and may alienate city voters.

Sussan Ley

Ley is one of the longest serving MPs in parliament and is pitching herself as a leader who can appeal to female and younger voters, who she says “feel neglected by the Liberal Party”. If successful on Tuesday, the 63-year-old would become the Liberals’ first female leader.

Arriving in Australia aged 13 after growing up in Nigeria, the Middle East and Britain due to her father’s career in the intelligence service, Ley grew politically ambitious while studying tax law, economics and accounting as a mature-aged student and owning a small business in regional Victoria. She was elected in 2001.

Ley served as one of two women in Tony Abbott’s cabinet and has held various portfolios since 2014. She was elected to deputy leader in 2022.

Sussan Ley would be the party’s first female leader.Credit: Oscar Colman

Seat: Farrer. Despite a significant swing away from the Liberal Party, Ley held the NSW electorate, which includes many border-towns along the Murray River and large parts of the Riverina region including Griffith. Using her pilot’s licence, Ley sometimes flies herself around the enormous electorate, which has never been lost by the Coalition.

Faction: Centre right, a small group associated with MP Alex Hawke and previously Scott Morrison. She is being backed by party moderates.

Strengths: The most senior woman in the party, she could help bring back female voters and members who have abandoned the Liberals. Was willing to campaign in teal independent seats throughout the first term. Has the support of former premiers Jeff Kennett, Nick Greiner, Barry O’Farrell and Gladys Berejiklian.

Weaknesses: She had a large swing against her in own seat and is not a proven fundraiser. Although she has ministerial experience, she is encountering resistance from colleagues who do not consider her leadership material.

Tim Wilson

Tim Wilson ruled himself out of contention for the Liberals’ leadership in a Facebook post on Monday night, saying he intends to be part of a party that wins back government in three years.

“I won’t be a candidate for leader tomorrow – it’s not my time,” he wrote. “But I will be giving all my energies to whoever wins, to replicate what we did in Goldstein across our party. “Nationally, I have the firm belief that we can win in three years. Not six. Three.”

Wilson had emerged as an outside chance for the leadership after winning back the seat of Goldstein from teal Zoe Daniel in a tight contest.

Wilson was first elected in 2016 but lost the once-safe Liberal seat to Daniel in 2022. The 45-year-old served as a junior minister during his first tenure. Former Liberal MP Jason Falinski endorsed Wilson in The Australian Financial Review and said the re-elected MP would be “fighting for the soul of the nation trying to win the hearts and minds of all Australians” from day one.

Tim Wilson was the only Liberal to win back a previously teal seat.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Seat: Goldstein. The well-heeled electorate in Melbourne’s south returns to Liberal hands after Wilson unseated Daniel. It is one of the many once-blue ribbon Liberal seats that was lost to the teals in 2022.

Faction: Moderate.

Strengths: He was the only candidate to win back a teal seat and also secured a rare win for the party in a metropolitan area, which would need to be emulated widely by the Liberals to find success at a future election.

Weaknesses: Wilson is the least experienced of all leadership candidates, having never served in cabinet. Goldstein is also an ultra-marginal seat, won by 1257 votes, and it’s possible he could lose it again in the next election. He is yet to announce his candidacy while Taylor and Ley have already started to lock in support from party allies.

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