Election 2022: ‘Peter Dutton a shoo-in as Liberal leader, with Sussan Ley his deputy’

Peter Dutton is on track to claim the Liberal leadership unopposed, with Sussan Ley firming as favourite to take the deputy leadership.

Liberal MP Peter Dutton. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Peter Dutton is on track to claim the Liberal leadership unopposed, with Sussan Ley firming as favourite to take the deputy leadership, as the party comes to terms with its election defeat.

Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews said on Tuesday that Mr Dutton was “the only contender for the leadership” and that, because she was also from Queensland, it was not tenable for her to stand for the deputy position. She said Mr Dutton would need to listen to traditional ­female Liberal voters who had abandoned the party at the election and help win back their support.

“He (Mr Dutton) will be elected unopposed as the leader of the Liberal Party,” Ms Andrews said. “He has widespread support. The view of the party is that he is the person to lead us into the future. He has the numbers and a strong level of support … No one should think there is going to be anyone but Peter Dutton leading the party.

“Because I’m a Queenslander and the Liberal Party is a national party it is untenable for the leader and the deputy leader to come from the one state.”

Former education minister Alan Tudge backed Ms Andrews’ assessment, saying: “Peter Dutton will be leader and I would expect him to be elected unopposed.”

Ms Andrews said she had a strong view that the deputy leader should also come from the House of Representatives and that “most definitely Sussan Ley is the strongest contender”.

The Australian understands that Ms Ley, the former environment minister who holds the ­regional NSW seat of Farrer, will stand for the deputy position and has strong support.

She said there were “many different lessons to be learned from this campaign and sweeping generalisations won’t cut it”. “We have to unravel the results booth by booth, location by ­location because they tell many different stories,” she said. “West of the Great Dividing Range people were far happier with the government.”

Ms Ley said the most important job for the opposition was to “listen to the people in the seats that voted us out”.

Speaking on ABC radio, Ms Andrews said it was important to understand why women had abandoned the party. “These women, highly educated, reasonably well off … and they are your traditional Liberal Party voters. But very disaffected with the Liberal Party. They don’t see themselves as traditional Labor voters,” she said. “What you saw was these disaffected women unhappy with the Liberal Party.

“We have to make sure as a party that we are truly able to represent these people. They are so important to our economy. They are so important to grow and nurture our communities … We need to get them back.”

Ms Andrews said Liberals sat to the right of centre on the political spectrum and Mr Dutton was from the conservative camp of the party. She said Mr Dutton would “work very closely with the female representatives” in the party. “I think what has happened with a lot of the women that we lost and who moved over to vote Greens is that they didn’t think they were listened to or heard,” she said.

“It will be the role of Peter as the leader. He has to listen. And he has to hear what’s being said now.”

Ms Andrews said she hoped her colleagues understood this was a “significant loss. It wasn’t even really close”.