Liberal MPs urge unity leader ticket as Tony Abbott questions ‘conviction’

Sussan Ley is believed to have already offered top jobs to colleagues in exchange for their support, as Tony Abbott condemned a ‘lack of courage’ for the spectacular election failure.

Deputy leader of the opposition Sussan Ley. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Liberal MPs have been urging Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan to run on a “unity ticket” as leader and deputy leader of the party, amid claims that Ms Ley has already begun offering top jobs to colleagues in exchange for their support.

The battle over who replaces Peter Dutton – ousted from his seat of Dickson by Labor’s Ali France – has intensified since the weekend, with claims of “mudslinging” emerging between his two leading potential successors, Ms Ley and Angus Taylor.

The former opposition leader landed in Canberra on Wednesday to clear out his office after Anthony Albanese’s historic ALP landslide brought Mr Dutton’s political career of more than 20 years crashing down and left his Liberal Party in ruin.

Mr Dutton swore to keep a “graceful silence” and refused to say where his campaign went wrong, or who should succeed him, as his former boss and prime minister Tony Abbott questioned whether his campaign had lost its “courage and conviction”.

“I’ve spoken to my colleagues and the Liberal Party rebuilds from here, as it should,” Mr Dutton said as he left the airport.

“I feel there are lots of opportunities but most importantly, to spend some time with family and friends and that’s about it.”

While supporters of Ms Ley – who was elected to parliament in 2001, the same time as Mr Dutton – blasted Mr Taylor for his failure to present a coherent economic manifesto early enough in the last parliamentary term, his backers said Ms Ley had been engaging in “transactional” wheeling and dealing.

Peter Dutton arrives in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Liberal sources said Ms Ley had offered high-level shadow cabinet positions including defence, foreign affairs and Treasury in exchange for support.

“She’s approaching it in quite a transactional way, offering people jobs in exchange for votes,” one senior Liberal MP familiar with negotiations said.

“And that will work to a degree, but it’s kind of a pretty unstable Coalition.”

Those mooted for the top-level jobs include Ted O’Brien, Mr Tehan, Alex Hawke and Tim Wilson.

Ms Ley’s supporters deny such offers have been made.

As internal machinations gripped the party decimated by Saturday night’s election result, Mr Abbott cited complacency, caution and a lack of courage as potential reasons why Mr Dutton was unable to “bring it home” on polling day.

“I think Peter was instinctually very much in the right place, but having done so well up until the end of last year, whether it was complacency, whether it was an abundance of caution … Whether it was difficult colleagues, I don’t know. That’s something that I suppose will be discussed and debated as time goes by,” he told an Institute of Public Affairs’ podcast.

“What we need in our political leadership is courage and conviction … and we haven’t had enough of either in recent times.

“One way or another, we weren’t able to bring it home.”

Former PM Tony Abbott. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Efforts to rebuild are already being undermined by an increasingly acrimonious leadership contest, Liberals say, with one MP, still undecided over who they would support as leader, declaring “the mudslinging by Sussan’s camp is less likely to bring about a unified party”.

While Mr Tehan has also been floated as a potential party leader, Liberal MPs said they believed it would be difficult for him to secure the necessary numbers – though many believed he was in a position to be deputy for whomever he supported.

“I think what he’s probably finding in the leadership contest is he’s got a lot of number twos, but not enough number ones. And so I think he could do quite well if he ran for deputy, if he chose to,” one senior MP said.

With Liberals confirming they were being actively courted by the potential leaders, several MPs said they had made it clear that the contenders needed to reach some kind of unity ticket to give the party the best chance to rebuild.

One MP said they hoped a formal vote would not be needed, confirming it was their expectation that an agreement would be made by the end of the week before the party came together for a meeting due by Wednesday.